Assessment
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 13 June 2006
The question of how to manage childhood obesity is one that perplexes health professionals, and many are cautious about whether to intervene. As with adult obesity, making a thorough assessment will help to establish the most suitable course of action for an individual child and their family.
In making an assessment:
- Take measurements of height and weight and plot this on the appropriate BMI centile chart
- Record measurements of waist circumference and refer to the appropriate centile chart*
- Note the child's and the family's weight history
- Consider whether there may be any underlying medical causes
- Assess patterns of eating and physical activity
- Collect information about the child's physical and psychological health
- Determine the expectations from treatment of both the child and their parent/guardian
The SIGN guidelines recommend referring the following groups to paediatric consultants:
- All children under the age of 24 months with BMI >99.6th centile
- Children over 24 months with BMI >99.6th centile who are at higher risk of obesity-related morbidity
- Children who have already developed a serious obesity-related morbidity e.g. hypertension, sleep apnoea, orthopaedic problems, hypoventilation syndrome and psychological morbidity
- Children with a suspected underlying medical casue of obesity
Factors, which may alert a health professional to an underlying medical cause of obesity include:
- Developmental delays
- Poor growth in height
- Dysmorphic features
- Hypogonadism