PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Family-Based Weight Management

Bay Area Committed to Kids is an outpatient, family-based weight-management program that uses a multidisciplinary approach involving a pediatrician, behavioral counseling, nutrition education, and exercise.  Our services are offered both individually and in groups.

• Each family will initially be seen and evaluated by the pediatrician and behavioral specialist on an individual basis.  This will include a comprehensive medical history, nutrition and activity history, psychosocial assessment, physical examination, and appropriate medical test.

• During the evaluation, the pediatrician, behavioral specialist and family will together determine whether individual or group sessions would be a good fit.

• Those not joining the group sessions can continue care with the pediatrician, dietitian, behavioral specialist, and exercise physiologist on an individual basis.

• Age-specific groups for children ages 7-10, 11-14 and 15-18 consisting of 10 weekly, two-hour sessions in groups of 4-12 families are available.   

• Families are encouraged to attend every session, and at least one parent or guardian must agree to attend each weekly session with their child. These sessions will focus on behavior changes that promote healthy choices, including identifying healthier food choices, developing fitness habits, and learning skills and techniques helpful in changing behaviors that lead to overeating and inactivity.

• Individual visits with the pediatrician, dietitian, behavioral specialist, and exercise physiologist are encouraged and available as needed for group participants.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Healthy and Balanced Eating Habits

• An important goal of BACTK is to help children and families learn how to make informed, healthy food choices in today's world. How to eat regular meals and snacks, how to choose foods that are rich in nutrients but relatively low in calories, and how to save those very tempting, high-calorie, low-nutrient foods as treats for special occasions will be discussed. There are no “forbidden foods” or rigid menus to follow, so your child never has to feel deprived.

• We help you identify and then modify current behaviors and situations by starting with small, achievable and gradual changes.  When these changes are in place, further changes and modifications follow.

Stretching, Calisthenics, and More Activities
for Fun Fitness

• The exercise component of the program will help you change your family's physical activity habits so it’s easier to move around and play.

• We help you identify and then modify your current activity patterns.  Barriers to participating in physical activity are addressed, and as with nutrition, we help you make small, achievable and gradual changes in your activity patterns.

• We will also look closely at sedentary behaviors, especially screen time, and help you identify how to reduce sedentary behaviors.  We have found that at least one-third of the time previously spent in a sedentary behavior is used for physical activity.

• Each group session will end with 60 minutes of physical activity led by an exercise physiologist. Stretching, calisthenics, dance, games, and other fun fitness activities will be emphasized that will introduce you to activities you can then do at home as a famiy. The fitness regimen will be structured to vary individually with each participant’s physical condition.

• We focus on creating a fitness plan for each child and family that is fun and something you will continue throughout your life.  We are often asked which is the “best exercise to do”.  The answer is “ the one you will”.

Group Sessions/Involving the Family

• Each group session will begin with approximately a half-hour for check in and discussion of the previous week. Individual concerns can be addressed briefly during this time.

• The following hour will focus on one area of nutrition, fitness, or behavioral change each week. This will be an interactive, age-appropriate hour led by a health professional who will be facilitating discussion among the group members while providing education specific to the focus area of that week.  Children and parents are often separated for part of the hour for respective activities.

•  Children and families will learn about behavior modification techniques that will help them make healthier lifestyle choices. Families will be able to see what they do that’s unhealthy, understand why you do these things, and learn how to do other, healthier things instead.

•  Individual goals for the week will be decided upon by the parent and child at each session.  As you have read and will continue to hear, small, achievable, and gradual changes will be emphasized.

Reinforcing healthy changes

• After finishing the ten week series of group sessions, families will be encouraged to participate in the maintenance program to reinforce the healthy lifestyle changes they have made over the past 10 weeks.
•  A monthly individual follow-up visit is recommended over the course of the next six months. Thereafter, biannual or annual visits are encouraged for lifetime maintenance of a healthy lifestyle
• Many families choose to continue with additional 10 week courses. These groups will reinforce previous knowledge and application as well as expand further the issues and situations discussed in the first group sessions, such as dealing with holidays, vacations, parties, and other special occasions.

Your Commitment

• You are giving your child a “gift” that will change their lives forever. You are nourishing a lifetime of healthy eating and activity habits that will add many more healthy years to their lives.

•  Regular attendance at weekly sessions by both parents and children is critical for success in this program.

• Each week, children and parents will be asked to set an eating and activity goal that is both practical and attainable. Establishing new goals or reassessing old ones helps you and your child assess how you are doing, what you think about the program, and how you feel about your progress.

Measures of Success

• normalization of medical risk factors (blood pressure, lipids, glucose, improved asthma)
• improved self-esteem
• improved fitness and exercise patterns
• improved eating habits
• improved parent-child feeding relationship
• improved body image and understanding of individual differences in body sizes/shapes
• improved ability to communicate and deal with feelings, teasing, social and peer pressure.