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Your health-care provider will consider your child鈥檚 weight status as part of a holistic assessment considering age, sex, and stage of聽.

Not all children with high weight will have聽.

However, as children get older excess body fat may have health聽聽including sleep apnoea (where breathing stops and starts during sleep), bone or joint problems, liver disease, high blood pressure or cholesterol, or insulin resistance (pre-diabetes).

If you notice changes in your child or adolescent鈥檚 health 鈥� such as dark patches around the neck or under arms (which indicate聽), headaches, trouble sleeping or joint pain 鈥� speak with your GP.

Your GP can investigate if there is a health impact related to excess weight. They may check blood pressure, and do a blood test to check liver health, cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels.

High weight is often related to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, or eating disorders. Your GP can help assess and manage these conditions.

础听聽can provide appropriate support and referrals to local support depending on your area. An聽聽experienced in paediatric health, for example, can help develop healthy meal routines for the family.

Changes that involve the whole family

Initial treatments for weight-related health will depend on your child鈥檚 age. They usually involve a whole-of-family approach to improving health behaviours,听:

• healthy dietary changes such as offering a variety of fruits and vegetables of different colours and types, and聽聽sugary drinks and foods high in salt, fat and sugar

• limiting screen time (aiming for no more than聽聽of non-education screen time for children aged five to 17)

• improving sleep habits (aiming for聽聽for children aged six to 12, and 8-10 hours a night for teens)

• increasing physical activity (aiming for聽聽of energetic play or vigorous activity a day).

Most children and adolescents will have improved聽聽and mental health and wellbeing after behaviour-changing interventions. This might include聽, fewer symptoms of聽, and better聽.

Sometimes weight loss may be recommended for adolescents with significant excess weight and associated complications.

As children get older, they will be included in the聽.

A range of prescriptive聽聽have been trialled with adolescents, including very low energy diets.

Our recent trial shows specific diets can stabilise weight and improve聽听补苍诲听聽health of adolescents. Our trial included 141 adolescents with obesity-associated complications and compared intermittent and continuous energy restriction.

We found improvements in weight, insulin resistance and liver function after one year for both groups. Symptoms of depression, eating disorders and binge eating reduced following four-weeks of a very low energy diet, followed by a transition to intermittent or continuous energy restriction, which was maintained for one year.

However, any prescribed diet should only be used under medical and dietary supervision.

New generation medications (such as聽) are now available to adolescents with severe obesity to be used alongside behavioural therapy. These can help with weight loss and reduce risk of future health complications.

聽may be an option for older teens with significant health complications.

If you are thinking about using medications or having surgery, discuss the risks and benefits with your doctor.

Children and adolescents with higher body weight聽聽to lose weight on their own. Unfortunately, most publicly available information is not tailored to the needs of growing children, can be unsustainable and may lead to disordered eating behaviours.

Social media is loaded with unhelpful聽,听听补苍诲听聽messages, and often promotes unattainable聽聽ideals. Talk to you children about what they see on social media to help them recognise which social media content is beneficial.

If you聽聽is losing weight quickly, hiding food or eating in secret, binge eating (eating a lot of food and feeling they cannot stop), vomiting after eating, overexercising to burn off calories or skipping regular meals to try and lose weight, discuss this with your doctor. These could be signs of an eating disorder.

Parents are important role models for children and have a key role in supporting the whole family to live a healthy lifestyle.

厂迟补谤迟听. Make healthy eating and enjoyable exercise part of daily life.

Avoid making聽聽about your own or your child鈥檚 body 鈥� and ask others to do the same. If you hear a negative comment about your child鈥檚 weight, try to re-frame this into a positive message. For example, 鈥済rowing bodies are strong bodies鈥�.

Be aware of bullying. Some children with a higher weight experience teasing or聽. This can occur from peers at school, teachers, parents and even health professionals. Ask your child if they are teased or bullied about their body and take appropriate action.

Finally, keep in mind that different treatments may work differently for different people. If you find a treatment approach is not working for your child or your family, return to your health care provider to discuss other options.

Children and families with weight concerns should be聽聽and dignity at all times. If you don鈥檛 feel your health provider is doing so, consider聽.

This article was originally published in The Conversation as:聽听叠测听Natalie Lister; Research Fellow; Paediatric Nutrition and Obesity/Pre-Diabetes Treatment; University of Sydney and聽Hiba Jebeile; Senior Research Fellow; University of Sydney.

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