Bariatric surgery for kids! Whee!
This scares the crap out of me. Have we really gotten to the point where forced food restriction and (potentially) stomach altering surgery is the best thing we can do for our kids? Not to mention the fact that the child mentioned in the article got fat because of a tumor on her pituitary gland and she couldn't feel her fullness signals anymore. So how exactly is lapband surgery, which essentially shrinks your stomach so you feel full sooner, working for this kid? If you can't feel full at all, does sooner ever come?
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Posted by CarrieP on February 8, 2010
I think physically, fuller comes for her because of the physical restriction on her stomach with the band and the dumping or vomiting or whatever it is that goes along with that kind of surgery It doesn't actually fix what is wrong with her, and maybe nothing can.
I think what is odd about this is they use this girl as an example for when WLS can provide a benefit to children, because she is an extreme case, but it's got the usual fighting the obesity crisis language because presumably they want to use it on other fat kids who don't have a pituitary issue. She told her story to launch the STOMP program, a program that helps fight obesity in kids by use of bariatric surgery as well as other things; there is the whole obesity is a disease, surgery is a tool not a fix and the kids have to go to support groups for several years.
This article doesn't even make a lot of sense to me. I mean they talk about this girl as being someone who has a chronic illness in addition to obesity. If obesity is an actual disease, or the result of an actual disease, why not talk about fixing the disease and look at obesity as a symptom. Granted, it is a very significant symptom in her case and I understand why we might just treat the symptom, but I also don't see how this is a long term fix.
I'm glad that Viola pointed out some possible reasons as to why she managed to lose weight after the surgery, because, after reading the blog post, then the article, the question remains how she managed to lose the weight in the first place, if her condition has not changed. Surely she would continue to consume the quantity she did before because her body wrongly tells her to, despite the band.
I can only assume what Viola did - that due to the decreased capacity of the stomach / inability to stretch, the excess food is vomited out because the stomach physically cannot take any more. I see no other logical or biological reason for her weight loss. So let's just assume she eats as much as before, and vomits at various times in the day. The article doesn't go anywhere near answering that question, so it can be assumed the answer may not be pretty (a.k.a. somewhere along the lines we were thinking).
On a side-note, it's an interesting condition. Usually people with increased hunger are found to have low levels of serotonin, (the hormone that tells the 'satiation center' in the hypothalamus that enough food has been consumed), you'd think a good dose of say Prozac would help her symptoms, but the tumor in the pituitary gland must have caused some kind of resistance to serotonin in her brain, resulting in constant hunger. I'd be interested in finding out the exact processes involved.
You've both made really good points.
'Her brain no longer signalled her when her stomach was full.
Presumably, it was her stomach that was no longer signalling to the brain that it was full, which could be a physical problem.
They have to stay on a programme for two years in which they have access to a dietician, psychologist, exercise therapist, nurse practitioner and endocrinologist. They must also attend support groups.
They aren't dealing with what they claim to be a disease because, well, look at that list, excluding the surgery team.
Plus a group who blame themselves and don't demand a more rational and less punitive approach. Apart from ethics, it's hard to see any incentive for them to do any better.
I honestly believe years from now, future societies will look at WLS the same way our society looks at foot binding. Some people will be shocked at that and offer all kinds of rationalizations for stomach mutilation. But when missionaries tried to stop the practice of foot binding, Chinese women were outraged. How dare they try and make us have "clown feet." Clown feet was a normal human foot!
"Fat can be beautiful. Intolerance is ALWAYS ugly!"
This surgery seems so extreme. She is still young and her body is still growing. I don't see how this is safe for her.
With all of the problems she has had with her illnesses this just seems certain to promise her more misery in the future. And certainly it will mean more surgeries....
Ugh. Poor thing.