Personalised care for children living with complications of excess weight

Dr Caroline Steele, a Consultant in Paediatric Endocrinology at Leeds Children's Hospital, will discuss childhood (paediatric) obesity and some of the issues facing children and young people (CYP) living with obesity/excess weight, including some of the complications they can experience (medical complications, bullying, weight stigma). Her discussion will cover factors influencing/linked with paediatric obesity such as poverty, neurodiversity/special educational needs, school difficulties and other common themes seen in our West Yorkshire Complications of Excess Weight (WYCEW) in childhood clinics.

Caronline will describe how we're addressing some of these issues; areas that have been more difficult to tackle; the multi-disciplinary nature of how we work; connections outside of the healthcare setting to further support CYP and their families; delivering personalised and compassionate care.

Video and written feedback from CYP and their families will enable the voice of the child and family to be a strong part of the discussions.

The interactive session also aims to promote the use of non-stigmatising, supportive language, whilst empowering people to feel confident and comfortable in talking about body weight and obesity with CYP and their families. Feedback and interaction from attendees will also be very much welcomed!

Areas to be covered:

• Paediatric obesity - causes, assessment, management/treatment
• The WYCEW service from referral to management
• The importance of non-stigmatising language, reducing weight stigma and suggestions on how to talk about weight without worsening stigma and distress

Dr Caroline Steele

Dr Caroline Steele, work's as a consultant in tertiary paediatric endocrinology at Leeds Children's Hospital, with a special interest in transition to adult care, Turner syndrome and childhood obesity. She is also the departmental lead for teaching and have a strong interest in research. Caroline completed her research degree at the University of Liverpool, investigating the pathophysiological mechanisms of hypothalamic obesity (HO) in adults, including assessment of the psychological aspects of eating and obesity (ratings of hunger, fullness, desire to eat using Likert scales), dietary intake using food diaries and hormone correlates whilst undertaking fMRI (functional neuroimaging) or Universal Eating Monitor assessments in fasting and fed states.

Caroline is involved with several past, present and proposed research studies (including the use of GLP-1 agonsists in children living with obesity). She is passionate about improving the care of children and young people living with obesity and reducing the stigma of living with this disease by promoting the use of appropriate language in medical, school, social and media settings.