This whole question is the wrong one. For the most part obesity is related to poor nutrition and insufficient physical activity. These children did not get to this point overnight. Where were their GPs or schools? Why didn't they intervene in some way - identification and referral on.

Please Mr Rudd give us a health system that will prevent these sorts of problems form occurring. Enable our general practices to employ nurses and allied health practitioners to work on these issues long before they come to surgery. Reward general practices (not general practitioners) that keep their patients at a healthy weight. You will benefit by smaller pharmaceutical costs, less lost time from work, and happier voters.

Im glad someone is saying this. I underwent gastric banding after countless attempts to lose weight. Sure it helped me to lose weight but at what cost. I now cannot eat socially because of risk of vomitig and my weight loss has not been sustained, despite the fact that I eat hardly anything. I have contemplated having the wretched thing removed however it is going to cost me $5000 which I cant afford. There needs to be more education about the dangers of this procedure rather than selling it as the be all that it's not.

I just wanted to add that I agree with the author in that I dont think 14 year olds would have the ability to manage the band

Gastric banding is not something handed to every Tom, Dick, and Harriet.
Australia is much further advanced than USA in this area of surgery and they are very strict in their guide lines as they do not want complications for people. Lap banding is a very invasive tool in the aid of obesity but is not the complete answer. As with all tools the user is the most important part in the success or failure for the battle is in the mind. My success story involves my latest round of blood tests coming back with all results in black. I give all the glory to God for only with the saving grace of Jesus have I been able to win the mind battle. Finely Abi don't give up, use the internet to get knowledge or seek help from your doctor. I have had 2 strokes from colestrol imbalance with a specialist telling me that I only have another stroke and death to look forward to because it is in my jeans .
Regards Richie 10

My English primary school had a tiny concrete playground yet we had outdoor team games every day and were bussed to monthly swimming lessons at a suburban pool. We had an annual sports day on a nearby field and some of us always qualified for the county Children's Day sports event. Few families had cars. We walked, hiked or rode bikes everywhere.

My high school scheduled daily sport, gym or country dancing. It had hockey and cricket pitches (planted in wartime with vegetables), showers in both pavilion and gym, lawn and clay tennis courts, netball and ‘rounders’ courts, a bicycle shed, and regular free medical checks of height, weight, teeth and flat feet. Hot, two-course school dinners were nutritious and filling.

Food was rationed until 1955, and the few fat kids I recall were either wealthy or mentally deficient. We were threatened with 'sugar diabetes' if we took an extra spoon of sugar. Fast food was fish and chips with peas or pickled onions.

Pocket money was earned by hard work and saved for better things than lollies, like the 5th form trip to France. Smoking would get you expelled from school, and ladies didn't enter pubs without a male escort. Cautions against tobacco, drunkenness and waste were as much part of the curriculum as exercise, though film actors sold out, and still do.

Arriving in Australia in 1960, I was astonished at the paucity of physical exercise and facilities for sport in schools.

Parents who knew what their kids were missing took up the slack at weekends and after school, running Little Athletics and other sports in time that should have been for relaxation, visiting relatives and passing on of domestic skills. Dads had tools and planted gardens, mums breastfed their babies, cooked the meals, knitted jumpers and made their own clothes — and were there when their kids came home from school.

Then came the 1970s when it suddenly took two wages to make ends meet, and commercial television hijacked our children's education, health and home life with comfort calories. THAT was when the fat hit the chin.

Then arrived The humanist world view, Geoff Whitlam, drugs, hippies, the femanist, new age inlightenment, evolution and modern progressive thinking, all sumed up in one word rebelion [against the status quo] change for changes sake, modernism, and inflation. Has the change been for the better or the worse. It all depends on your hope.

pushing gastric banding also allows society and the "experts" to avoid confronting the powerful manufactured and processed foods industry and also avoid confronting the dimension inequality and poverty brings to a lack of access to organised sporting opportunities, good neighbourhoods with excellend facilities and excellent diet opportunities. I know as a pensioenr the struggles I go through to eat properly and I don't have my own home or money put away.

Polly: Australian country townspeople in NSW back in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's [my origins] were primarily avid sporting people; most of whom 'expected' their children to play sport every week and physical activities during school weeks.

My siblings and self all played sport on weekends and activities during the week. The same situation for most of the 60,000 population taking in the surrounding country towns; the Riverina, which btw, produced its fair share of national 'sporting greats' in both football and cricket.

Australia being a newer smaller country back then was incomparable to the UK during that era. Factually, Australian country cities and towns encourage and expect their children to participate in regular continual sporting activities and physical exercise; and most children do at the primary school levels and through the early high school years.

It is my belief that genetics play a large part in weight gain for many children and adults also. There are members in my extended families with genetic history regarding weight gain despite eating healthily and exercising regularly.

For any person considering gastric banding [I read people's stories a long time ago on the net]; there are both successes and problems. I gather from the stories read, that it is an individual case by case situation. I decided to lose the weight I'd gained over a two year period naturally. 27-30 kilo weight loss back in 2003.

Smaller portions 'served in a bowl', eliminating white products eg no white pasta, white rice or sauces,no desserts, cakes or slices. The sweet side was easier as my children have never enjoyed cakes/slices/biscuits or junk food. I ceased purchasing these items to date.

Increasing fibre daily with exercise, was the 'key' to push that fat right out the door and lock the door forevermore!

If any person [with or without back problems] seeks tips and advice regarding my weight loss, please pop in a post application on OLO and I will be delighted to try and assist you with the type of exercises and food intake to lose significant weight and keep it off easily.

Given the explosion in child hood obesity and the appearance of type II diabetes in children (unheard of until recently) we are looking at the next generation having a shorter life expectancy than ours.

While gastric banding (GB) is intrusive and unpleasant, the alternatives are also dire. A teen with type II diabetes is not expected to live past his 40s, and even then with extreme lifestyle restrictions. (not when johnny gets a little plump)

GB is typically recommended for those morbidly obese with a BMI of 40 or greater, who are looking down the barrel of diabetes and heart disease. I know 2 people that have had GB, and while neither are enthralled with the side effects, they are at least confident of seeing their children grow up.

Rather than looking at GB as cosmetic, rather compare it mentally to chemotherapy. It is unpleasant, but the alternative is far worse.

Seeing the Lighter Side of Overweight

Says a doctor to her patient: "You'll lose weight on any strict diet, but it's mostly water…. from crying."

Though sustainable and healthy weight loss can only be achieved on the foundations of a wholesome diet and lifestyle, it certainly is no reason for crying.

The old adage that all you need to do to lose weight is reduce the number of calories you consume - i.e. EAT LESS - is being questioned. This old way of thinking also implies that the overweight person simply lacks the discipline to lose weight. However, research suggests that at least part of the reason for our constant food cravings is our body's cry for nutrition. Thus, far from giving you another food-related guilt trip, eating nutritious (and ‘yummy’) foods will put you on track to a healthier body.

This is because it's what you eat, rather than how much you eat (o.k….. within reason) that is decisive for successful weight management.

The weight-loss industry is experiencing phenomenal growth, and diet veterans will be aware of the abundance of options available to them. Commercial diet programs or surgical means of losing weight can be invaluable stepping stones on the way to a healthier body. Everyone’s journey is unique.

However, there comes a time to ask: Has the path I have been following equipped me with workable strategies to live a healthy life? Have I been empowered or is life-long attachment to the system I have chosen required for me to stay on track?

Weight-loss education is an often overlooked aspect of conventional weight-loss programs. Learning about the dysregulated biological mechanisms underlying our weight concerns and understanding how to restore the balance may well prove to be the missing link that has made sustainable weight control so elusive.