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.
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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.”
