Empowering families to live healthy, happy lives
Welcome!
Texas Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity was created to address the childhood obesity epidemic facing Central Texas today. According to 2008 FITNESSGRAM® results, approximately 35% of the students in grades 3 to 12 are overweight or obese in Austin ISD alone.
Headed by Stephen Pont, MD MPH, the pediatric obesity center focuses on reversing obesity trends in children and reducing long-term illnesses caused by obesity. Dr. Pont's team includes experts in medicine, psychology, nutrition and physical therapy from Dell Children's Medical Center, UT-Austin, and the Texas Child Study Center. The center incorporate multi-disciplinary prevention and intervention methods and practices to help children and adolescents overcome obesity.
The Texas Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity includes four CL•E•A•R components:
- Evidence based multidisciplinary CLinical treatment
- Patient, community, and student/trainee Education
- Community Advocacy and capacity building, through serving as a resource and partner for health-related collaborative community efforts
- Novel Research to advance knowledge, document success and expand services.
The center's highlights:
- ACES (Activating Children Empowering Success) Clinic provides comprehensive evaluation, psychosocial support, behavioral health support, and treatment for overweight and obese children and teens. The program includes consultation from our dietitian and offers teen cooking classes to help achieve better nutrition.
- Healthy Living, Happy Living / Vida Sana, Vida Feliz is an after-school, family-based obesity program. The 10-week program focuses on empowering children and their families to make lifelong healthy changes.
- Collaboration with Teens Empowered for Exercise and Nutrition (TEEN) Group The TEEN group focuses on the challenges of making healthy behavior changes and helps teens build skills in motivation, mindfulness, emotion regulation, self-image, and communication.
