The Americans now say they want to use gastric surgery more quickly after the thirteenth year and the regular prescription of medication. “We are not going that far in the Netherlands yet,” says van den Akker, who compiled the Dutch guideline two years ago together with a number of paediatricians. “But we also see that obesity among children has increased in the past ten years. Step 1 is prevention for us, but that doesn’t always help anymore.”
‘See numbers go straight up’
The question arises whether the directive should also be tightened up further in the Netherlands. “The American guideline is a wake-up call for us,” says Felix Kreier, also a pediatrician who also co-wrote the Dutch guideline. “On the other hand, the situation in America is of course much worse.” In the US, 19% of children are obese, in the Netherlands this is currently 3%. “But we see the figures go straight up. If we do nothing, we will also go to the American figures in the Netherlands.”
Child marketing and sugar tax
According to Kreier, the most important thing at the moment is to see how to prevent this. “This can be done, for example, by tackling children’s marketing, healthy VAT or a sugar tax and taking a good look at the youth’s environment.”
