Family-Based Childhood Obesity Program Helps Kids Cut Weight, Become Healthier

Key TakeawaysFamily-based programs for childhood obesity can be delivered through pediatricians’ officesNearly half of kids lost enough weight to improve their heart health and lower diabetes riskThe program teaches healthy habits for families.TUESDAY, July 28, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Childhood obesity can be effectively treated through a family-based program provided through their local pediatrician, a new clinical trial says.About 42% of kids in the program lost enough weight to improve their heart health and lower their diabetes risk within a year and a half, researchers reported July 27 in JAMA Pediatrics.The program teaches families how to establish healthy eating and exercise habits, including positive reinforcement and supportive routines, researchers said.“Our results show that an established, effective obesity treatment for children and adolescents can be successfully delivered in their pediatrician’s office,” lead researcher Amanda Staiano said in a news release. She is director of the Pediatric Obesity and Health Behavior Laboratory at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University.“What makes this study especially meaningful is that we worked alongside healthcare practices and insurance providers to create a model that supports real-world delivery,” Staiano said.“By building treatment into existing clinical teams, we demonstrated an approach that is sustainable well beyond a clinical trial and can expand access for families who need it most,” she added.For the trial, researchers recruited more than 700 children with obesity across four states at 41 primary care practices and randomly assigned them to one of two groups.One group received standard care, in which patients received counseling and medical management of their childhood obesity.The other group received the same care plus up to 33 sessions with an expert trained in treating childhood obesity, typically a registered dietitian or behavioral health specialist.Those sessions, attended by the child and a parent, focused on a family-based approach to treating obesity. Lessons included:Monitoring eating, exercise and weightSetting goalsModifying the home environment to support goalsUsing positive reinforcement, praise and parental modelingEstablishing supportive routines“Family-based behavioral treatment is a robust, evidence-based treatment that has been established and validated through more than four decades of research,” senior researcher Denise Wilfley said in a news release. She’s a professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis.“The critical question in this study was not whether family-based behavioral treatment can work in specialty research settings, but whether it can be integrated effectively and sustainably into the primary care settings where children and families already receive care,” Wilfley said. “The answer is yes.”On average, families attended about 17 sessions, about half the total offered by the program. More than 75% of the sessions were delivered via telehealth.However, the kids provided with family-centered care wound up losing more weight after a year, the study found.Both groups started about 77% above a healthy weight. A year later, the family-based treatment group was down to 70% above healthy weight, compared to 74% for those receiving standard care.The gap continued to widen after the sessions ended. Six months later, 50% more kids in the family-centered care group had lost enough weight to improve their health than kids who got standard care.“When children and parents develop skills together and the home and social environments reinforce those changes, the benefits can extend across the household and support lasting change as the child grows,” Wilfley said.Roughly half of the participating families were covered by Medicaid, and about 1 in 5 reported food insecurity, researchers said.“The study has shown that delivering lifestyle behavioral treatment for obesity to a diverse patient population can be successful in a primary care setting,” Dr. Sandra Hassink said in a news release. She is medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight. “This is an important trial because health behavior and lifestyle treatment is the foundation for comprehensive obesity treatment,” added Hassink, who was not involved in the study.More informationThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on family healthy weight programs.SOURCE: Washington University in St. Louis, news release, July 23, 2026 .What This Means For YouParents of children with obesity should ask their pediatrician about family-based behavioral programs that can help all family members achieve a healthier weight..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Family-Based Childhood Obesity Program Helps Kids Cut Weight, Become Healthier

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