"Our focus and concern is all about health and not about appearance. Children who are morbidly obese can do anything they want -- they can be judges, lawyers, doctors -- but the one thing they cannot be is healthy," said study co-author Amy Porter, MD, a Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park pediatrician who leads the Pediatric Weight Management Initiative for Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Region.

"The most important advice to parents of extremely obese children is that this has to be addressed as a family issue. There is rarely one extremely obese kid in a house where everyone else is extremely healthy. It's important that everyone in the family is invested in achieving a healthier lifestyle," Porter said.

"This publication is only the beginning. Now we are trying to quantify the health risks and long-term effects associated with extreme obesity, determine which groups are affected most, and develop strategies for population care management to reduce these health risks. Children's health is important and we have a long way to go," Koebnick said.

This study is part of Kaiser Permanente's ongoing work to identify, prevent and treat childhood obesity through research, education and community programs.  Kaiser Permanente announced Feb. 9 that it was a founding partner of the Partnership for a Healthier America (www.ahealthieramerica), a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation created to catalyze and increase support around First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to curb childhood obesity in a generation.

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente