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Danish doctor cracks child obesity enigma

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November 10th, 2014


This article is more than 10 years old.

Paediatrician Jens-Christian Holm has an 80 percent success rate at making the kids normal again

Despite the number of overweight Danish children and young people more than tripling over the past 30 years, it has been almost impossible get the children to permanently lose weight. Until now.

Jens-Christian Holm, a paediatrician from Holbæk Hospital, has treated 1,900 children and young people aged 3-22, of which 80 percent have lost weight and retained a normal weight after treatment.

”It's easy enough getting the children to lose weight,” Holm told Metroxpress newspaper. ”The tough part is getting them to stay there.”

”But we can do it now with the vast majority of children, because we recognise, research and treat child obesity as a chronic illness.”

Holm and his department's work has featured on some of the BBC's international channels (Podcast: go 17:30 minutes in for the piece) and electronic platforms across most of the world this week.

READ MORE: Prenatal stress may affect children's health

Tailor-made changes
The Danish doctor hopes that paediatricians all over the world will adopt his department's ground-breaking results in the global battle against obesity among children and young people.

"We are naturally very happy and proud about our results,” Holm said. ”Obesity is very difficult for children to handle alone.”

"We work with a deep understanding of the hormonal processes, special pedagogy and 15-20 individually-tailored lifestyle changes for the children, but also for their families.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”