Weight Management for Kids and Teens

About our weight management program

Children’s Hospital Colorado helps children of all ages with healthy weight management. Our program is the only one in the region that specializes in childhood obesity and that has an extra focus on children with special needs. With more than twenty years of experience caring for kids, our team has created national obesity guidelines, led national obesity studies and participated in a national FOCUS group.

Why choose us for weight management

Children's Colorado offers the region’s leading pediatric weight management program. We understand that weight management is an ongoing process. Our team of pediatric experts strives to provide families with the tools that build motivation and confidence in order to make healthy lifestyle decisions.

At Children’s Colorado, we offer a wide range of options to integrate weight management into your child’s life. Our services and amenities that are geared toward healthy living include:

• Free weekly exercise sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
• Access to our Wellness Center, which includes a yoga room and a fitness room
• Nutrition counseling at our Anschutz Medical Campus and several network locations
• Cooking classes and grocery store tours taught by our dietitians
• A variety of activities for all weight management patients
• Special diets, weight loss medications and other intensive interventions
• Medications and supplements
• Clinical trials to test weight management solutions
• Radiology (using imaging such as ultrasound or MRI to look inside the body)
• Indirect calorimetry
• Sleep studies
• Blood tests

Who we treat

We see children from birth through 18 years of age who are gaining too much weight too quickly, are at an unhealthy weight for their height, are severely obese and/or have obesity-related health conditions such as:

• Sleep problems
• High blood pressure
• Problems with cholesterol or triglycerides (forms of fat that circulate in the blood)
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (a cause of irregular periods)
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (the buildup of extra fat in the liver cells)
• Insulin resistance (a cause of increased blood sugar and risk for type 2 diabetes)

Healthcare providers may use our Weight Management Program referral guide to arrange a consultation.

Weight management programs and clinics

We have two weight loss programs for kids and teens: Our Lifestyle Medicine Program treats those who are overweight because of their lifestyle and our Weight Management Specialty Clinic treats those who are overweight because of a medical condition.

Lifestyle Medicine Program

Our Lifestyle Medicine Program provides multidisciplinary treatment options for children who are an unhealthy weight for their height, obese or overweight. We conduct a full medical assessment and treat:

• Infants or preschoolers with excessive weight gain and rapidly increasing weight/length or body mass index (BMI)*
• Children and teens with obesity (BMI above the 99th percentile)

* You can get BMI information from your child’s primary care doctor or through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) BMI calculator. The CDC also provides helpful information about assessing BMI in children.

We help families make changes and build skills in the areas of diet, physical activity and behavior. These include goal-setting and meal planning. Our multidisciplinary team includes dietitians, exercise specialists, psychologists, social workers and medical providers from several different specialties. We also refer children to our Sleep Center as needed.

Weight Management Specialty Clinic

Our Weight Management Specialty Clinic evaluates and treats children who have obesity comorbidities, which may include:

• Type 2 diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol, which we refer to our Lipid Clinic
• Polycystic ovary syndrome, a cause of irregular periods
• Obesity-related sleep apnea, which causes poor breathing during sleep
• Impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting glucose, which are conditions that increase a child’s risk for diabetes

We can check whether your child has an obesity-related health condition during their first visit. We will then determine a personalized weight management plan in the second visit.

If you believe your child has diabetes or another health problem listed above, we can review their lab results. Our team will determine if your child needs more urgent treatment.

Contact the Weight Management Program

To make an appointment, call 720-777-3352.