'Let's Move!' Aids Physicians in Childhood Obesity Prevention

Bulls**t.

Thanks to some name-dropping, physicians are finding it easier to talk about treating — and preventing — obesity with their pediatric patients' parents on the second birthday of the federal initiative called Let's Move!, designed to counter that epidemic.

When parents take their children to a pediatrician's office, they sometimes will mention the program and the name of its founder, First Lady Michelle Obama, according to Sandra Hassink, MD, a board member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and director of the Nemours Pediatric Obesity Initiative at A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware.

"It gives us an opening with the patients and family to talk about the need to be eat healthy and be active," Dr. Hassink told Medscape Medical News. "It's been a positive influence."

There are no data to demonstrate that it makes any difference at all re: how fat kids become.