Discussing weight in pediatrician's offices is complicated and should be undertaken with care, but with more than one in four Medicaid-insured children 10-17 years old meeting criteria for obesity, our role is to help inform families and to advocate for their health.
When we were in the office earlier in the week, after listening to her lungs, I showed her mother the slight darkening of the skin on the back of Mindy's neck. That color change was a sign that her body was likely creating extra insulin to keep her blood sugar at a normal level. That same insulin was also causing some of her skin cells to proliferate. I called that Saturday morning to share that the lab results had confirmed this: Mindy did indeed have blood sugars that put her in the pre-diabetes range.
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