Story Photos
 The Melo family, from left to right, Anthony Jr., Lisa, Ashley and Anthony, eat a healthy pasta meal they prepared themselves Friday night instead of the pizza they once enjoyed.
Photo by Bill Wagner/The Daily News
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Losing it together
Saturday, December 15, 2007 5:17 AM PST
By Barbara LaBoe
Printable version
E-mail this articleKALAMA -- When his daughter and wife signed up for a teen weight management program, Anthony Melo kept eating his Ding Dongs.
"It was the typical guy thing, the 'I don't need this,' " he said recently from the family's Kalama home. "But then I noticed I wasn't sleeping well and I had low energy. And then I saw the effect it was having on them -- and they weren't starving or anything -- so I thought I'd try."
Twenty pounds later -- and lighter -- he is a believer.
In addition, daughter Ashley, 15, has lost eight pounds and wife, Lisa, has dropped 30.
The entire family, which also includes son Anthony Jr., has gotten into the act after the 19-week Kaiser SHINE program. They've tossed out their junk food in favor of tasty but health foods.
They're also reading labels when they shop and exercising more. And Ashley has learned to take the stairs instead of the elevator.
The family's transformation also has landed them on a Discovery Health channel program about how to prevent childhood obesity. "Healthy Steps to Treating Childhood Obesity," produced jointly with Kaiser Permanente, debuts at 9 a.m. Sunday on the cable channel and will repeat several times throughout 2008.
"When you're trying to become healthy, the effort has to be a family thing," Anthony Melo said. "It can't just involve one person, and it has to be a lifestyle change, not just a short-term gimmick."
That attitude is exactly what doctors like Tualatin's Philip Wu say is key to addressing the nation's burgeoning child obesity problem. Wu, pediatric clinical lead for the Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute's Weight Management Initiative, also is featured in the show.
"For parents simply to be aware of the problem and acknowledge it is probably the most significant thing," Wu said. "Once they do that the door is open for them to start problem solving."
One in four American children are considered overweight or obese, and Wu said he talks to at least six parents a day whose kids have weight problems.
Parents, and even doctors, used to think that a "pudgy" toddler was nothing to worry about. Today, Wu said, they know that even an overweight 3-year-old can develop health problems by the time he enters kindergarten
In addition, the child -- even with average weight parents -- has a one in three chance of being obese as an adult. Add one obese parent into the mix and the risk jumps to 80 percent, Wu said.
"That's a big deal," Wu said. "No longer can we say 'Johnny's just a little pudgy but there's lot of years left for us to intervene.' The statistics show that every passing year that go by those chances (of making a change) drop significantly."
Parents know obesity is a problem, Wu said, but it often can be hard to make the changes they need to -- especially if they have their own weight problems or failures.
"A lot of adults have had various and personal issues with weight loss and a lot of people have failed," Wu said. "Sometimes adults develop a sort of concept or philosophy about how difficult it is to succeed ...and those attitudes can very easily be transferred to the kids. So they not only give up on themselves, but they're also kind of automatically giving up on their kids. And that's a big barrier."
Doctors often struggle with how to talk to parents about the significant health issue without offending or embarrassing them, Wu said. That's why he encourages parents to bring the issue up themselves during their child's visit.
Doctors also are more likely to bring the issue up now, thanks to new guidelines in this month's "Pediatrics" journal, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Previously, children whose percentage of body fat would have gotten them labeled obese if they were adults were merely called overweight or at risk. Now, the association is recommending the same terms used for adults.
In addition, an advertisement for the Discovery Health program featuring Wu and the Melos is included in the journal. While the show primarily is aimed at doctors and health care workers, the producers took great care to make sure it relates to parents as well, Wu said.
"We tried to make accessible to a broad audience," he said. "And we answer questions in it that came directly from parents."
As for Anthony Melo, he said he can't imagine going back to his earlier lifestyle.
For curiosity sake, he ordered a "double bacon, double everything burger" the other day, but found he couldn't finish or enjoy it.
Even his beloved Ding Dongs have fallen out of favor.
"They don't taste right to me anymore," he said.
Five steps to reduce child obesity
1) Reduce kids' screen time, both in front of the television and computer. School-age children should be limited to no more than one to two hours, including homework. Younger children should have even less and children under two should have none.
2) Serve no sweetened beverages or limit them to four to six ounces a day. One soda, by comparison, is 12 ounces.
3) Try to ensure they get at least 60 minutes a day of moderate physical activity. This doesn't have to be full-out aerobic exercise, just walking or getting them moving helps.
4) Feed them a healthy breakfast every day. Research has found that children who skip breakfast are more likely to eat more during the rest of the day and to choose more inappropriate foods and snacks. A healthy breakfast is one with proteins and other nutrients, not donuts or sugared cereals.
5) Include lots of fruits and vegetables in their diet, ideally five servings or more a day.
Check out "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective," a free Kaiser bilingual video game for kids with tips for parents online at: http://members.kaiserpermanente.org/redirects/landingpages/afd/.
Source: Dr. Philip Wu, Kaiser Permanente
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