Although obesity has been declining among children and adolescents, many of them hold misconceptions about eating, such as a 15-year-old girl who swallowed cotton to suppress her appetite, the Taiwan Pediatric Association said.
The prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents — those aged five to 19 — has been declining each year, from 11.4 percent in 2015 to 11.2 percent in 2019, said association chairman Lee Hung-chang (李宏昌), a pediatrician at Mackay Memorial Hospital, citing data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
However, clinical observation has shown that many children and adolescents hold misconceptions about obesity and have adopted unhealthy ways of losing weight, he said.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
Lee said that a junior-high school girl that he treated had a normal body mass index (BMI) of 18.8 when she saw him because she was vomiting bile and had severe constipation.
Her condition was found to have resulted from frequently swallowing cotton from a thick quilt and padded jacket in an attempt to suppress her appetite and avoid eating late-night snacks, he said.
She was very concerned about becoming “obese,” as her parents often told her that she “was too fat and had fat thighs, but still ate late-night snacks,” he added.
The cotton obstructed the teenager’s intestines, and although it was removed through surgery, she might experience bands of scar-like tissue in her abdomen long term, Lee said.
At the opposite spectrum was a 16-year-old boy who was treated for “extreme obesity” — he was 172cm tall, but weighed 139.4kg and had a BMI of 47.12, said association member Yeung Chun-yan (楊俊仁), also a pediatrician at Mackay Memorial Hospital.
The teenager was diagnosed with hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia, as well as fatty liver disease and liver fibrosis, Yeung added.
The Health Promotion Administration has published Evidence-Based Guidelines on Children Obesity Prevention and Management (兒童肥胖防治實證指引), and offers a BMI assessment calculator for children and adolescents on its Web site so that parents and children can better understand what a healthy body weight is, he said.
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