Clinic Information--Information for Parents
NEW Kids Clinic at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin is a team of health professionals to help improve the health of overweight children 2-18 years old with medical problems. NEW Kids Clinic believes most health problems can be improved or removed by changes in lifestyle habits. The NEW Kids clinic does not use one program for every family. Our treatment recommendations are matched to meets the needs of each family that comes to clinic. The health improvements for patients occur most successfully when changes are made for the whole family.
NEW Kids Clinic uses a health care team approach to help address every area of lifestyle that may be influencing the patient's current health.
- Doctors and pediatric nurse practitioners will diagnose and monitor health problems.
- Dietitians will help you understand how different types of food & beverage choices influence your health and how you can improve choices to improve your health.
You will meet with those members of the team that will help you and your family best. It is extremely important for all parents and caregivers to come to clinic appointments, especially the first one.
How to start
The NEW Kids Clinic is for children with medical problems related to weight. If you or someone in your family is concerned about weight problems, see your primary care doctor. Your doctor will measure weight and height, and decide if more testing is needed. If he or she discovers a problem, like high cholesterol, insulin resistance or high blood pressure, they will refer the patient to the NEW Kids Clinic at Children's Hospital. A NEW Kids team member will then contact your family.
If you are not interested in attending a program, but want to get started on eating and physical activity changes within your family to assist with weight, click here.
First visit
The first visit to NEW Kids Clinic will be with a nurse practitioner, who will screen you child for medical problems associated with overweight and obesity, will review your child's laboratory values, and ask you and your child questions about physical activity and eating habits. The nurse practitioner will also ask you questions about "readiness to change" to see if an intensive program is realistic and desired by your family att his time. This session will last approximately 1 hour. By the end of the session, you and your family will leave with specific goals aimed to help you and your family achieve weight maintenance or weight loss.
Follow-up visits
Return visits to clinic are between 1 hour to 1 1/2 hour in length and are usually scheduled every four to six weeks for a total of five visits, but note that appointments may be extended or shortened based on medical judgement and the patient's needs. Appointments are available Monday to Thursdays between the hours of 8am-3pm. All other visits will include a Registered Dietitian certified in weight loss management to work with your family to set realistic goals based on your families lifestyle and dynamics. We realize that every family is different, and therefore, we individualize care to assist your family as best as possilbe while changing your lifestyle to accommodate the needs of you children for their health. If there are problems in meeting goals, then the NEW Kids team will discuss this with your family. As healthy habits are developed, your
Success
As most children are still growing, weight loss is often not the goal of treatment. Maintaining weight, improving health and learning life-long healthy habits are the primary goals.
Physicians and medical providers
If you would like to refer a patient to the NEW Kids program, download the NEW Kids Referral Packet and follow the instructions.
If you have any questions, contact your doctor, or call the NEW Kids Program at (414) 266-6864.