http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=3481336&page=1


This just drives me crazy. No surgeon in the US would do, so the kid's mother took her to Mexico to have the surgery done? WHAT?
A Texas family that attracted national attention — and controversy — for letting its overweight 12-year-old daughter undergo liposuction has gone one step further.

Brooke Bates, 13, has gotten a gastric lap band surgically placed around her stomach to shrink it and reduce the amount she can eat.

Her's the article:
Brooke said she has always struggled with her weight. At her heaviest, she weighed 220 pounds. By early 2006 she lost 40 pounds through liposuction and a tummy tuck. But, in less than a year, she regained 35 pounds.

After the liposuction and tummy tuck, which cost $25,000, Brooke said she "went from the big, fat girl to the popular girl."

"Then I gained weight back and it was depressing," Brooke said. "But now that I had the lap band done, everything is just working out great."


Traveling to Mexico
Brooke's mother, Cindy Bates, said she was sad for Brooke when she began gaining weight after her first round of surgeries, but she said she didn't blame her daughter.

"It was the happiest year of her life and it was sad watching her, you know, struggle with trying to keep the weight off," Cindy said. "So that's the reason we did the lap band so she could control her hunger and how much food intake she was putting in her body every day."

Most doctors in the United States usually don't perform gastric lap-band surgery unless a patient is at least 18 years old, has a body mass index of 40 or higher or weighs at least twice his or her ideal weight.

So against the advice of their family doctor, the Bates traveled to Mexico to get the procedure done, without trying to find a local surgeon. The procedure cost $7,900.

"It seemed to be very safe over there and the clinic Brooke had it done in was very clean and the doctor has lots of experience … so I was fairly confident," said Cindy
Though Brooke's case may seem extreme, children and teens getting cosmetic surgery has increased drastically during the last decade, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

But doctors worry that getting weight loss surgeries so young can be detrimental in the long term and don't address underlying issues.


Not the Easy Way Out, Says Teen
While Brooke likened her overeating to an addiction, her mother said that she didn't believe the problem was psychological.

"I don't really relate it to an emotional issue," Cindy said. "I think it's more of a hereditary characteristic in our family."

Brooke also found it difficult to stick to a diet and workout regime, Cindy said, and she couldn't constantly monitor her habits.

Though Brooke mainly exercised at home after her liposuction, she has now joined a gym.

The teen also said that she doesn't see surgery as an "easy way" to lose weight.

"It's no walk in the park," Brooke said. "I don't think getting cut and going through surgery is the easy way out."

Brooke says she's determined to get to her goal weight.

"I want to get down to about 125 to 130 pounds, so I have a lot more weight to lose. But I lost 15 pounds in about three weeks and I know I can [lose] more."

and who, if any -- works on the addiction! or even recognizes the addiction! Certainly not all of the rest of the addicts!

My 14 year old is on the diet with me, he has lost 25 pounds this summer. The other 16 year lost 22. But I am reteaching them and me to eat right and make real choices, right choices. If this girl doesn't make the right choices, she will gain her weight back regardless of surgery
sandi

Someone have mercy on these kids!! Major surgery as another temporary fix isn't just extravagant; it's cruel, imho.

It would be a kindness to help these kids break their addictions to TV and video games too.

Valerie

No weight loss treatment will be effective if it doesn't change your current habits. Once the LAP-BAND is gone, then what's gonna happen? A miraculous transformation? Don't count on it!

Just another tribute to the failure of the standard dietry recommendations. But the medical & dietary establishments have brainwashed people that low fat-high carb is the ONLY healthy way to eat. I was once there myself. One TV ad for lap band surgery likens hunger to a roaring lion. The high carb diet causes cravings which are stronger in some than in others. I know for me, it was so strong that I just gave up on losing weight. These poor folks don't see any other option than to mutilate their bodies with gastric bypass or lap band. I'm not going to go as far as to say the surgery is never appropriate, but it should be considered an extreme measure and an absolute last resort. They are even touting gastric bypass & lap band as solutions to type 2 diabetes.

I have to laugh every time I see the ad about lap band and the roaring lion. I conquered my roaring lion with low carb and didn't have to mutilate my body in the process. Problem is, the medical establishment won't give people permission to try low carb, so they think there is no other option. Only if someone has tried all dietary approaches, especially low carb and they have all failed, should they even consider surgery.

What about all of the nutrients her growing body will be missing? A lady where I workout had the procedure done and has lost a dramatic amount of weight. One of the trainers was testing people for the amounts of vitamins an minerals in their blood. I don't think it was any accident that she scored the absolute lowest in all catagories of anyone tested.

Oy! That poor kid, to have parents so clueless that they don't think of the obvious solutions like increasing her activity level (dance classes, a Wii with Dance Dance Revolution, a new bike), trying a food plan that includes wholesome, unprocessed products, and maybe - just maybe telling her that she is absolutely beautiful just the way she is, since self-acceptance is an important step in permanent weight loss. But noooooo! Instead poor Brooke gets subjected to plastic surgery twice so her parents can feel that they have "done something" for their daughter. WLS may be warranted for some people, but a 12-year-old kid with less than 100 lbs. to lose? That's like using a machine gun instead of a fly swatter.

Face it - that kid will never ever feel she's intrinsically okay, since all she's been taught are superficial values. I don't know about Texas law, but IMHO this is a textbook case of child abuse. For shame!

Well - I had to comment on this one as I have a lapband. Being so metabolically challenged, I could not lose not even eating less than 5 carbs a day.

Remember Dr. Atkins talking about those who'd have to watch their calories and their carbs. That's me to a "T". I could NOT lose this weight if it hadn't been for my lapband. I also believe that some people have a saity defect that no matter WHAT they eat they do not feel full "normally". The lapband helps with that as well because it presses on the vagus nerve - the nerve that makes us feel full at the TOP of the stomach.

Erosion BTW is a RARE Complication from the lapband (1-3%). The worst case scenario - it has to be removed. You don't die from it, unlike complications from the Gastric Bypass. Slippage rate is also low AS LONG as you don't "wear" your band so tight, forcing the band to do all the work. If you have eating problems (overeating etc. - GOOD SURGEONS recommend getting some therapy about your food addictions BEFORE the lapband is placed). I wear my band loose, I don't really "emotion/stress" eat. I am just severly metabolically challenged. I NEVER throw up with my band from being too tight. I've had it for 2 years and never thrown up once. This is the MAIN reason for band slippage (which is an "easy" fix as well).

It is not intended to be removed. It is a permanent albiet a completely reversable procedure. They do call it the "thinking man's weight loss surgery" - why, because you still HAVE to watch what you eat. Unlike a gastric bypass that causes your LACK OF STOMACH to not be able to absorb calories (and nutrition as well!!).

Honestly the diet that MOST bariatric surgeons recommend? Low-carb! Surprised? I thought so!

I know MANY people who have gone to Mexico for a lapband placement. These surgeons are certified and trained by the only FDA Approved lapband in the US - Inamed. Some of their hospitals are BETTER than the US hospitals. The reason it's cheaper? No malpractice insurance

I do not consider my body mutilated whatsoever. I have everything intact inside of me. Jimmy is always saying that he supports all different types of diets "IF" it works for them. Frankly traditional dieting has a success rate of 1-3% to lose all the weight and keep it off. Weight Loss Surgery has a 50% success rate. I would NEVER recommend a Gastric Bypass due to the REAL complications, but a lapband - probably. I would also recommend that they follow a low-carb diet for healthy aspect of it and I honestly believe that most OBESE people have some sort of insulin resistance.

The lapband was NOT a waste of time for me at all. I lost the first 75lbs with my lapband's help. I do not have nawing hunger all the time (again remember, I can't just load up on fat to kill my hunger as it has way too many calories for ME). I follow a low-carb diet for health.

But as someone said, Weight Loss Surgery should be a LAST resort, not a first stop and certainly not for a 13 year old. Unfortunately, as long as the government and doctors PUSH a LF diet, our children will STAY obese. Fortunately for my 15 year old daughter, I knew enough about nutrition and health to have her check for PCOS/IR (which I have) and sure enough her insulin levels were dangerously high. In combination of a diabetic drug and a low-moderate carb diet she went from a size 22 down to a size 14 (and still is looking to lose about 14 more pounds).

But how many American parents, do you know that would know to have their children checked and how many more do you know would be bold enough to put them on a low-moderate carb diet? Not many. I see that woman as DESPERATE for her daughter. Probably stupid. But is it her fault?

Band-It:
What worries me is that it's bieng done on a teenager that may not be able to make the mature decsions how to manage her eating to avoid complications, especially since liposuction was tried first. Teenagers by nature do a lot of stupid things .
I have to wonder what things are like for her at home - I grew up with one of those grandmothers that showed love with food, and her tyring to help me lose weight made her crazy: "You need to lose weight...have a cookie!"
Personally i think that's one of the avantages of low carb if lived as a lifestyle- those unhealthy foods are gone for good.

Hi Yvonne,

Glad to see you here. I agree with you. It's the old thing about what came first the chicken or the egg. I think some people (and I'm sure it often starts early in life) have bodies that are not as forgiving when it comes to diet and they gain weight because they are insulin resistant.

I'm glad your daughter uncovered her physical problems and is dealing with them successfully. I think when some of us choose a low carb diet, but fail to lose a lot of weight right way, it's because their bodies must heal much as your daughter's did with the help of meds. Then the weight loss will come.