Fat kids have Fat parents

Last week while at work we rec'd an ambulance call that they were bringing a 3yr old unconscious/non-responsive to the ER. Well, we all got ready to intubate this child, do CPR, and any emergency care needed. When the fire dept. brought in this kid, I had to double take! He was HUGE. "Morbidly Obese" is a term that comes to mind. I mean this kid was at least 55 pounds! A 3 yr old... UGH! Anyway this child wasn't breathing, so we intubated him, and all this frothy-pink sputum came flowing up...His finger-stick glucose was 300, and his temp was 104... So what was the problem? Congestive heart failure? Diabetic kidoacidosis? Sepsis? All three?

We were able to stabilize the boy, reassure his parents, who were beside themselves with fear... We sent the boy to UMC, where a few days later he was extubated, and was doing better. They discovered that the boy had sleep apnea because of his size. He had probably had it for a long time, because now he had an enlarged heart. The chronic air hunger from the apnea made his body compensate by making his heart beat faster than normal, which in turn, made his heart enlarged. So the plan with this kid? Probably a trach until he loses weight! Scary.

Then I heard on CNN yesterday that 1/3 of all children in the U.S. are obese. So every 3rd kid in your child's class is gonna be the 'fat kid'. That's a lot of fat kids!

So what do we do? As parents we can try to lead by healthy example. We can serve healthy things to eat, we can shut off the TV, we can shut off the video games, we can shut off the *gasp* computer!

We can all go outside and play.