Lap Bands For My Teen

I have max 140 til the age of 32. My mom petite and small and very curvy as well as I. I wore 8 and 10 and some dresses in 12. My dad was like 155. Grandma and aunt small. My children....my oldest girls is shaped exactly like me before I picked up weight a few years ago from operation meds. My youngest son is tall and kinda small but not skinny and my baby girl is like 12 pounds overweight according to the NORM. My kids dads side of his family is bery obese but of coarse not everyone. I am watching my daughter as far as her weight simply because of her dads side of her genes. If she contiunes to gain well into het teen years, I would suggest the sleeve but not as a young teen maybe like 16 going on 17.

BUT....EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT!!!! YOU'RE RUINING MY LIFE!

Yes. I am. Relishing every moment. What mommy doesn't want to RUIN YOUR LIFE?

Oh man, you guys are all saying MY lines. LOL Boys use slightly different versions. But yeah, it is SO not fair when a mom says no to anything.

And my fave is when they turn 16 and they looked at us like we were SO stupid they felt sorry for us and wondered how we could even hold jobs! LOL

Wow. What medical professional would think that this could be a good idea? We all know how well teens handle frustrations. What happens when they get frustrated because what they are supposed to eat, they cannot eat because it gets stuck? What percentage of teens are going to commit to the fill appointments, and how are they going to handle the discomfort if and when something starts to go wrong with their bands?

If they are lucky and losing with the band, are they going to be so afraid to give it up that they endure pain and possible damage? If they are unlucky and don't lose, or have early complications are they going to have yet another blow to their psyche telling they they are just doomed to be fat and why bother trying since they are obviously a failure (teen mind-speak here..)

I'm sorry, but I was a MO teen, and I was also a very bright, stubborn and studious teen (nerd)- but I still don't think I would have been emotionally able to handle something like this.. Impulse control and long-range thinking isn't exactly fully developed at that age. Oooh cheesypoufs go down just fine, but that chicken breast mom made last night kinda hurt.. guess what gets eaten next time I get hungry? 

Personally I think the band should be taken off the market since I've seen sooooo many people have problems with it. At the very least limit it to volume eaters and do far more psyche treatment before OKing the band. I was a fat teen and a well educated one as far as diets went but even so I'd never have had the patience to deal with all I've had to deal with in my band experience. If a teen really needs surgical intervention I'd much rathr see them get the VSG where there is far less follow up needed. It is just shameful that not only does Allergan not listen to band complaints but now they want to pu**** on teens. Absolutely unethical!

I think the band is the very worst choice for a young person.  My surgeon who does all four surgeries does not recommend the band for teenagers and I know he has done a number of sleeves for MO teenagers.  When I talked to him about this issue he told me that there is not way the band would work for the rest of the teen's life and that would guarantee another surgery down the road.  It seems like a terrible choice.  I personally know a teenager who has had the sleeve done when she was 15 and she is doing just fine.  She never did reach goal and she still eats many of the foods that got her MO in the first place, but she has lost 80 lbs. and many co-morbidities that went along with that.  She looks like a normal American overweight teenager now.  She has fewer issues with self-esteem and has even started to exercise more.  I know she has not maximized her sleeve potential, but her life is so much better now then before the sleeve.  She thinks it is one of the best things she has ever done for herself, and I would agree with her. 

I love my band but I would absolutely not recommend it for a teen. In fact I would not recommend any wls for a young person. As someone else said, they lack impulse control, ability to see long term, and have no idea how wls will impact the rest of their lives. That being said, if a kid is MO and has more than one comorbidities I would cautiously suggest the sleeve. There would need to be counseling with a professional familiar with eating issues in teens. The teen would need to learn that no wls will fix white carbs, and other than DS every other proceedure can be eaten around. To save a kids life, YES, otherwise NO, NO, NO surgery.

I saw this on the news the other night and i was horrified,  I hope this doesn't go through,  i think its a terrible idea.  Agree with everyone else,  life and death,  i'd say get a sleeve,  i have so many friends with problems with the band,  very scary this  :o) jeani

 I know of someone who had their pre teen sleeved.  I don't blame them.  No parent wants to see their child suffer, especially if we know first hand the pain of being an obese teenager.  I remember seeing some show on tv about a young girl that talked her parents into letting her get a band and she seemed to do well with it.  My child has a weight problem but says they will never have WLS.  When I was that age I wouldn't have hesitated if it was available.  And knowing how my mother was so ashamed of having a fat child she would have had me on the table when I was 10lbs overweight.  She had me on diet pills at 13 and 140lbs.

My daughter is the opposite of yours, MM. She will do anything to avoid having the surgery and is worried that me getting it means she'll HAVE TO get it. So we talk about what I did wrong and what she should do to avoid it. [Not that I see this impacting her behavior much. She's still a carb addict.]

That said, if she was MO, I'd have her have surgery in a heartbeat as soon as I thought she was mature enough to handle it. Because once you get to be MO and have tried dieting and just gained it all back, there really isn't any point in doing it again and again and again IMO. Skip the angst and wear and tear on your body and get surgery is my philosophy...

But not a band. Bands are mechanical devices and mechanical devices fail. Right now they are only guaranteed for around 10 years. Sure, they'll probably last longer. But let's say the 16 year old lives to be 76. Will that band last 60 years? NO WAY. So even if bands didn't have the complication rates they do and were much more effective than they are, I'd still say no because, when you put a band into a kid, you are *guaranteeing* they'll have a second surgery some day. And the road to that second surgery could include some pretty bad complications and even death.