What to Expect at Your Appointments
Lifelong health and wellness starts with establishing healthy habits. At our Healthy Weight and Wellness Clinic, our team of specialists including physicians and dietitians work with your child and your family to establish changes that work with your lifestyle.
Making an Appointment
Making an appointment at our Healthy Weight and Wellness Clinic is simple. Call 631-444-KIDS(5437) or (631) 444-2730.
On the Day of Your Visit
Please arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. Bring your child’s insurance card as well. You will be asked to fill out a two page initial questionnaire, asking about your child’s medical history and questions about your child’s habits. You can also print and fill out the questionnaire before the appointment and bring it in with you on your first visit.
Please call if you are running late. We may ask you to reschedule as we do not want to rush through your appointment. Understanding our patients, medical and lifestyle evaluation and providing individualized care geared to each individual, takes time.
At Your Appointment
Your child’s vitals will be taken along with comprehensive body analysis with our bioelectric impedance scale which measure fat percentage. If your child is over 18 years old, the scale also provides calculations for fat, muscle, bone, and water mass along with visceral fat, basal metabolic rate, and a unique metabolic age assessment. We will also take measurements of your child’s arms/waist/hips depending on your child’s comfort level.
During your child’s first appointment, your child’s team will ask many questions to understand the different factors that may be contributing to the abnormal weight gain. Your child will meet with a:
- Physician
- Dietitian
We’ll also assess for other comorbidities associated with excessive weight gain, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglyceride, fatty liver, sleep apnea and many others.
We will explore if there are mental or emotional health issues that may be affecting your child’s habits. Many children struggle with anxiety and depression that is not diagnosed or addressed yet which can be a big contributor to unhealthy weight gain.
A dietician will also discuss current eating and exercise habits. They will make recommendations of what changes can be made. However it is overwhelming when one asks for lots of changes at a time. So your child will pick at least 2 goals to start with and work on those until their next appointment. Individualized achievable goals lead to motivation and are more likely to succeed.
You will receive a binder with handouts to review at home to reinforce what was discussed at the appointment.
This initial appointment will typically be 1-1.5 hrs long.
A follow-up appointment will be scheduled before you leave. Most follow-ups occur 1-2 month after the initial visit. Research has shown patients with close follow up and intensive counseling are most successful at achieving a healthy weight and lifestyle.
Your child may be referred to another specialist to address any underlying health conditions identified during the visit. Stony Brook Children’s Hospital has many pediatric sub-specialities such as endocrinology or sleep medicine specialist to help take care of your child. Opportunity to join our Fit Kids for Life program is also available. This 10-week program helps educate children ages 8 to 17, who are at risk for cardiovascular disease, about making healthy lifestyle choices that impact their overall health in addition to participating in physical activity that is led by a team of physicians, physical therapist, medical students and physical therapy students.
Future Visits
Your child will require multiple visits towards achieving a healthy weight as habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form. A comprehensive body analysis will be obtained to see if there is any reduction in fat percentage since weight may be the same if more muscle mass is gained through a healthy lifestyle of diet and exercise. You will meet with a physician and dietician at every visit. We will assess if there a new issues at every visit and address new concerns.
If diet and exercise has been optimized and your child continues to gain weight, we will discuss if medical management such as a weight loss medication is warranted. Safety and appropriateness of medical therapy will be discussed at length. Healthy Weight and Wellness Clinic also works with our Bariatric Program hat is accredited at the highest level by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP) to work with adolescents. We are ranked among the top centers nationally for bariatric surgery patient outcomes reported to the MBSAQIP.
Parental participation and support are most important for your child’s (and your family’s) journey to a healthy weight and general wellness.
We will be there to support you and your child every step of the way. Most importantly, we take pride in listening to each child’s and their family’s needs to determine the best individualized changes and goals that would work for you.
To make an appointment at our Healthy Weight and Wellness Clinic, call 631-444-KIDS(5437) or (631) 444-2730.