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After a thorough health evaluation, the clinic's medical staff develops a comprehensive plan for your child based on the causes behind your child's abnormal cholesterol or blood pressure. In some children, the plan includes a weight-loss component that incorporates heart healthy eating and exercise. In many children, when weight comes down, so does bad cholesterol and blood pressure. In addition to diet and exercise planning, the clinic offers long-term follow-up and routine monitoring of cholesterol levels, triglycerides, blood pressure and other important health indicators.
Successful treatment usually involves a lifetime commitment to healthy eating habits and exercise. In some cases, cholesterol lowering medications, or other medications for secondary illnesses, are incorporated as part of a plan. In children without a secondary illness, medication prescribed, if any, is typically secondary to making important lifestyle changes that will reduce your child's risk for atherosclerosis, while increasing your child's stamina and helping your child feel healthier and leaner.
The best approach to this plan is to make family-wide changes in eating and exercise. This will make it easier for your child, and there is often more than one member of the family who is at risk for atherosclerosis and can benefit from making these healthy changes. Different eating and activity plans for different family members can make some children feel singled out or isolated, making difficult lifestyle changes even more difficult.
Changing your family's lifestyle can be challenging, even daunting to you or your child. You can rest assured that the doctors, nurses and nutritionists that you will meet specialize in helping parents with the same challenges you face, and will offer strategies that have helped many other young children and teenagers stick with the program.
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