| We welcome you to consider using SHAPEDOWN, the nation's leading weight management program for children and adolescents for over 20 years.
SHAPEDOWN was developed by faculty members of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and includes contributions from nutrition, exercise physiology, endocrinology , psychology, family therapy, adolescent medicine, family medicine and behavioral and developmental pediatrics. SHAPEDOWN is continually reviewed and revised to ensure that it reflects current scientific and clinical understandings.
Children and teens in SHAPEDOWN enhance their self-esteem, improve peer relationships, adopt healthier habits and begin to normalize their weight within their genetic potential. Parents feel better about their parenting and about their child. The family becomes healthier and closer. The results of SHAPEDOWN go far beyond weight.
SHAPEDOWN is Family-Based
Pediatric obesity research has shown that family-based treatment is effective even at 10-year follow-up. Treatments that don't target the family have no long term significant effects. SHAPEDOWN is family-based and targets overweight, nutrition and activity in both child and parents.
Developmentally Sensitive
There are four program levels - Level 1 (6 to 8 years), Level 2 (9 or 10 years), Level 3 (11 or 12 years) and Level 4 (13 to 18 years). Each level is sensitive to the physical. emotional, cognitive and social needs of that age group.
Addresses Underlying Factors
SHAPEDOWN incorporates into obesity treatment a broad range of family therapy and psychoeducational techniques to address underlying psychosocial correlates of the child or adolescent's weight. Included are problem solving, assertive and emotionally expressive communication and parenting skills including limit-setting and nurturing techniques. In addition, cognitive therapy, stress management techniques and body image therapies are used. Together these techniques create the intimacy and safety children need to stop their excessive appetites for food and inactive pursuits.
SHAPEDOWN is so gentle and protective that almost any child or family could benefit from participating. All potentially harmful or distressing techniques are avoided including rigid or low calorie diets. Weight loss is gradual, ranging from weight maintenance while growing, to no more than one pound per week loss.
SHAPEDOWN's dietary recommendations are consistent with the U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowances and the National Cholesterol Education Project Guidelines. The recommendations for physical activity include increasing daily endurance activities, enhancing overall activity levels through chores, interests and social activities and decreasing sedentary pursuits such as television viewing. Additional food behaviors targeted include eating regular meals and eating in response to hunger and satiety.
Respect for the individual and the family is inherent in SHAPEDOWN. The whole child is addressed, rather than just the obesity. Each level stresses the psychosocial issues pertinent at that stage of development. SHAPEDOWN integrates ethnic, cultural and economic differences into its content. The program workbooks include examples of a broad range of family types including single parent families and blended families. In addition, multiple instructional modalities are used to enhance the program's utility with learning disabled children.
SHAPEDOWN VALIDATION RESULTS (As published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Vol. 87, No. 3) SHAPEDOWN was shown to produce significant long term outcomes in a controlled study of 66 adolescents followed for 15 months in diverse sites in California . Subjects were randomly assigned to test or control groups. The test group received the group application of SHAPEDOWN. The control group received no treatment. There were no significant differences between groups in any of the variables studied at the beginning of the study.
The data were analyzed using paired t-tests. The SHAPEDOWN group at the end of treatment (3 months) and at one year follow-up (15 months) significantly decreased relative weight and significantly improved weight related behavior, self-esteem, depression and knowledge. The control group made no significant improvement in any of these variables except self-esteem. This study demonstrates the short and long-term effectiveness of SHAPEDOWN.
What will SHAPEDOWN do for me?
For Children and Teens - SHAPEDOWN will help you take care of your health and happiness. You will learn to create an active, full life so that food and television are less important. You will talk about your feelings and needs so that you will feel safer and happier. You will learn strategies so kids stop teasing and so you feel better about your body. SHAPEDOWN brings out the best in you! For Parents - SHAPEDOWN will help you feel better about your parenting and about your child. You will let go of guilt, fear and frustration about your child's wright as you put into practice positive changes in your family's lifestyle and communication. In many cases, changes from SHAPEDOWN are profound. Parents are amazed at their child's new happiness and vitality and at the richness of their family life.
Is SHAPEDOWN Right For Me?
Not necessarily. That's why care begins with a biopsychosocial assessment by your SHAPEDOWN Provider (older children and adolescents can receive a full computerized Y.E.S. assessment). Through it you learn all the areas you are already healthy in and the things to focus on to get the best results with your weight. The right care for you may involve SHAPEDOWN, in a group or individually, and/or other kinds of treatment.
Should all kids be thin?
No. Children come in all sizes and shapes that are perfectly normal. The goal in SHAPEDOWN is for the child or teen to gradually attain their genetic body build, which ranges from willowy to rounded.
What if the weight is genetic?
The goal of those with simple genetic obesity is to accept their genetic body build, to develop healthful habits and to avoid the dieting psychology, all of which are addressed in SHAPEDOWN. Is SHAPEDOWN Safe? Weight loss for children and teens can be hazardous. Rapid weight loss or strict diets can affect the growth and development, promote binge eating, slow metabolism and result in weight gain. SHAPEDOWN is safe. It encourages a gradual, safe weight loss or the maintenance of weight as the child grows.
Is SHAPEDOWN Effective?
Yes. Controlled studies have shown that when families participate in SHAPEDOWN, there is significant improvement in weight, self-esteem, depression, diet and exercise habits and weight management knowledge. However, progress varies depending on how open to change the child and family are.
How Long Does It Take?
SHAPEDOWN may be in a group format or on a individual counseling basis. Group programs include an intensive, 10-week schedule with meetings of about 2 hours weekly to give families basic SHAPEDOWN training. They can continue care through ADVANCED SHAPEDOWN, a nurturing support program that deepens and extends their progress. ADVANCED SHAPEDOWN meets weekly or biweekly for 20 weeks or more. Children love the SHAPEDOWN groups, a chance to be with other kids. Parents receive support from other parents and delight in their child's progress.
Who Teaches SHAPEDOWN?
The typical SHAPEDOWN Program is delivered by a primary instructor, who may be a registered dietitian, a mental health professional, an exercise specialist, registered nurse or physician. All SHAPEDOWN Providers, in addition to their own professional training, complete 46 hours of clinical education in child and adolescent obesity from the University of California , San Francisco .
How Does SHAPEDOWN Work?
SHAPEDOWN builds on the strength of the family. It gently and effectively supports families in creating an active lifestyle and a healthy but not depriving diet. Parents tune up their nurturing skills to curb their child's emotional overeating and sharpen their limit setting skills to prompt their child toward a healthier lifestyle. The child accepts more responsibility for diet and activity and feels happier and safer. Food becomes less important, activity more exciting and the child's weight begins to normalize.
What Other Therapies Are Involved?
SHAPEDOWN not only helps families target changes in nutrition and activity but focuses on common underlying factors that fuel a child's excessive appetite for food and inactive pursuits. Although exercise physiology, nutrition and behavioral techniques are used, the power in SHAPEDOWN comes from its sensitive, entertaining and practical use of family therapy and psychoeducational techniques.
Is There A Diet?
No. Diets typically cause children to feel deprived and, as a consequence, to overeat. Instead, SHAPEDOWN supports gradually adopting a moderate food intake that provides essential nutrients based on the Recommended Dietary Allowances and the National Cholesterol Education Program Guidelines.
What About Exercise?
SHAPEDOWN stresses overall fitness, including endurance, flexibility and strength. Children and parents develop a more active lifestyle and replace television viewing and other inactive pursuits with chores, interest, sports and projects.
What Else Is Addressed?
A wide range of strategies help the child and parent take care of their emotional and physical health. For example, children learn techniques that effectively stop peer teasing. Parents free themselves from the weightism of our society. Families learn communication techniques to resolve conflicts.
Is SHAPEDOWN right for us?
SHAPEDOWN caters to diversity. There are four developmental levels of SHAPEDOWN, each sensitive to the educational, social and emotional stages of the child. Ethnic, cultural and economic differences are reflected in the program as are a range of family types, such as single parents and blended families.
Does SHAPEDOWN treat parents too?
In SHAPEDOWN, the whole family changes so parents often see weight loss and sustainable improvements in their diet, activity, blood pressure and serum cholesterol. However, overweight parents need a comprehensive assessment from their own health care provider to determine the best form of care for them.
Which parent should attend?
If both parents reside in the area, both parents should attend. Also, step-parents, aunts and friends or anyone who takes a parenting role, is encouraged to participate. If one parent is more removed from a child, their presence may be even more important. Questions about your particular situation should be discussed with your SHAPEDOWN Provider. Research has shown repeatedly that without a family approach, all treatments - diet, exercise, behavioral approaches - are ineffective. It is only by building on the strength of the family that child obesity programs have their long lasting, beneficial effect on weight.
What if parents don't want to eat healthy and exercise?
Then SHAPEDOWN is not right for the child. The SHAPEDOWN philosophy is that parents should not ask of their child anything they are not willing to do themselves. However, the SHAPEDOWN lifestyle changes are gentle and flexible and fit into the priorities and capabilities of most parents.
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