About the Healthy Weight Program
The Healthy Weight Program (HWP) is a multidisciplinary program that includes physicians, dieticians, exercise physiologists, a psychologist and a social worker. Our team’s mission is to help children and their families improve their overall health and quality of life through positive lifestyle changes.
We will work with you and your family on making small but meaningful changes to eating habits, movement, mental health, sleep and other important areas of well-being to treat and prevent chronic illnesses and improve long-term health.
We see children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 21 with extra weight (a body mass index or BMI that is higher than 85% of kids of the same age and gender) and their families. We believe your child can be healthy at any weight. Our goal is to make sure your child is growing appropriately for their individual body. We focus on growth trajectories, not your child’s weight at a specific point.
We understand that a person’s weight is determined by a lot of different factors (individual biology, genetics, hormones and community factors), many of which are not within a person or parents’ control. You will not find criticism or judgement at the Healthy Weight Program.
During your family’s time in our program, we will continue to work with you to adjust your child’s treatment plan. As your child reaches adolescence, there are other advanced treatment options we can consider, including meal replacements plans, medications and adolescent bariatric surgery.
Goals of the HWP
The overall goal of the program is to help your family achieve realistic health behavior changes to improve overall health and well-being, and to prevent future health issues or treat your child's current health issues.
Depending on your child’s and family’s needs, our overall goals and definition of success within the program may vary. Common definitions of success within the Healthy Weight Program include:
- Improvements in lab values such as cholesterol, liver function test (LFTs), triglycerides and A1c (long-term blood sugar level)
- Improved family dynamics around food, exercise and weight
- Improved nutrition quality
- More regular exercise/movement
- A healthier relationship with food
- Positive body image
- BMI stabilization — helping a child find their personalized BMI trajectory that is appropriate for their body