MPOWER Program for JUNIORS 7-11 YEARS

Medical Evaluation

During the first visit patients will meet with a pediatrician for a complete medical evaluation, including laboratory tests focused on uncovering possible causes and complications of their weight gain. For those patients with complications of their obesity, referrals may be made to other University of Michigan subspecialty clinics (such as pediatric cardiology, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric nephrology, and pediatric pulmonology) as needed for management of these associated conditions.

Nutritional Counseling

A Registered Dietitian who specializes in weight management provides personalized dietary assessments and nutrition education. In keeping with our family-focused treatment of obesity, the dietitian also performs home visits to help assess barriers to weight loss and to help families capitalize on their strengths to improve the likelihood of success. Regular cooking demonstrations, healthy recipes and sample ingredients help take the guesswork out of creating nutritional meals.

Behavior Change

Providing families with information is not enough to help them make the long-term lifestyle changes necessary to lose weight and keep it off. To improve the likelihood of success, our program includes regular visits with our pediatric psychologist and social worker who specialize in weight loss. In these visits, the psychologist and social worker evaluate individual barriers, needs, and strengths, and work with families to help facilitate behavioral change, improve motivation and build confidence in their ability to achieve new lifestyle habits.

Fitness Improvement

Regular physical activity is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Each patient in our program receives an initial fitness assessment and regular physical activity instruction from an American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist. Weekly exercise classes at the Ann Arbor YMCA are specifically designed to meet the needs of 7- to 11-year-olds. Children in the program are taught new kinetic skills to help them become more active in their home environment.

Contact the Pediatric Comprehensive Weight Management Center