SickKids Hospital Offers Help for Obese Children

Kate Yule
Friday, February 5, 2010

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children is the first in Canada to offer a surgical option for obese children.

Bariatric surgery is usually only performed on people who are dangerously obese. It involves reducing the size of the patient’s stomach.

The new program at SickKids is for 12 to 17-year-olds with ‘complex obesity,’ meaning children who are overweight due to brain tumours, or who have heart disease complicated by obesity.

The program’s director, Jill Hamilton, says patients will go through an assessment and an intensive behaviour modification program to determine the best treatment for them.

Only about 10 or 12 of the patients are expected to need the surgery. Most will likely end up on medication or specialized diets.

If all goes well, the hospital will expand the program, without the surgery component, to children age 5 and under.