Losing weight really is a family affair, especially when it comes to children. Researchers at Washington University St. Louis are studying ways of reducing obesity in kids by enlisting the help of their parents – the grocery-buyers and ultimate decision makers – in losing weight.
The Comprehensive Maintenance Program to Achieve Sustained Success, funded by the National Institutes of Health is known as COMPASS. Research will be conducted in St. Louis by Washington University over the next two years in collaboration with Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute. COMPASS will recruit 120 families each in St. Louis and Seattle with children between the ages of 7 and 11 who are at least 20 percent above their ideal weight.
“Forty percent of children now between 7 and 11 are overweight, so it’s tripled in the last 30 years. said Denise Wilfley, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, Pediatrics and Psychology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “It’s not that the parent is a problem—society is a problem. We’ve changed so dramatically … in terms of the amount of screen time going up (TV, handheld computers)… the more likely they are to eat.”
And fast food can pack on a lot of calories that are hard to take off when society is more sedentary.
“The problem is, to try to burn off 700 calories, a child would have to run for two hours,” Wilfley said. “It catches up with you very quickly.
“Even a small amount of weight is associated with being at increase risk of being overweight in adolescence and adulthood. Sadly our children today are at increased risk for not only living sicker but dying sooner than previous generations.”
Wilfley, principal investigator of the COMPASS study and director of the university’s Weight Management Center, said all study participants will participate in a proven weight loss program after which they will learn how to maintain the weight loss.
Families will be randomized into one of three treatments.
“One will be a sort of standard of care (learning more about how to best maintain their weight loss thru education about diet, activity and parenting,” Wilfley said.
“The other two programs will be both centered on helping parent and child change their social support system to try to help them keep their weight off.”
That doesn’t mean those who lose weight will have to ditch their old friends.
“The focus will really be on connections with others who have healthful eating habits and activity patterns in their own communities – neighborhoods, schools and home,” Wilfley said.
Anjenita Allen’s 16-year-old daughter, Jazmyne Robinson of Ferguson, Mo., had been under watchful doctor’s care since she was a young child because physical evidence signaled that she may become diabetic.
“She had a tendency to be a little overweight and she also had some dark skin on her neck and her underarms and the back of her legs and that kind of warned the doctor a little bit that she might have been developing diabetes,” Allen said.
By age 10, Jazmyne was really beginning to gain weight.
“At 14, she started feeling really bad … headaches, nauseated, fatigue. Things were just not good,” her mother said. “When she went for her checkup before school, the doctor was alarmed and sent her for blood work and Jazmyne came back a little abnormal.”
Overweight or obese children and adults are at risk for other medical problems such as high blood pressure, sleep apnea and as in Jazmyne’s case, diabetes.
At the advice of her doctor, Robinson and Allen participated in an earlier diabetes and weight loss study at Washington University, which was also led by Wilfley.
Allen said first thing to go was all of the sweets in the house, and she looked at her family’s eating behaviors.
“We ate whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. It didn’t matter how late or how early. We didn’t have any discipline about our diet at all,” Allen said.
All of that changed.
“We tried not to eat after 8 p.m. We tried to include more water in our diet. Our milk went from 2 percent to 1 percent,” Allen described.
And breads and pastas became whole wheat.
“We are doing more baking than we do frying, and more boiling and broiling,” Allen said.
Sodas went from regular to diet for Robinson and Allen and their exercise also increased.
Chocolate, Jazmyne’s favorite sweet, is now a treat of moderation.
“I eat chocolate, but I don’t eat as much,” Jazmyne said.
“The agreement is if she is going to have regular candy, she has to have exercise at least 30 minutes that day, at least… and if she has it, she can only have a small portion,” Allen clarified.
Between the two of them, daughter and mother have lost 90 pounds in the last year and a half.
Jazmyne said it was hard at first, but after a couple of months, it was worth it.
“When the next school year came around and I was shopping for new clothes, it was totally different,” Robinson said.
Jazmyne dropped from sizes 16 and 18 to sizes 10 and 12.
Jazmyne’s headaches got better and her mother said menstrual cycles became normal and mood swings improved.
“Over the first two or three months, everything was a lot better. Her energy level went way up,” her mother said.
Eating healthier, medication and exercise put Jazmyne’s diabetes under control. After losing 50 pounds, she plans to maintain her new health and her new look.
Softball, soccer, and a Curves membership helps Jazmyne stay active, but exercise is still a work in progress.
“They are trying to get me to work out more at home, because I think it’s boring,” Robinson admitted.
The COMPASS study deals strictly with reducing childhood obesity. Children who qualify for the two-year COMPASS study must have at least one overweight parent who will be an active participant in the program as well.
Children or parents who cannot participate in moderate physical activity at a level of a brisk walk are not eligible – neither are persons who take medicine that affects their weight, are under severe dietary restrictions, have eating disorders or who are participating in other weight-loss programs.
Participation is free and families completing the study will earn small stipends.
For more information on COMPASS, call Molly at 314-286-1055 or email
