Center helps kids shed weight

By jogging daily on the treadmill and eating smaller portions, 17-year-old Trevor Nellis shed 40 pounds.

And the Shaler Area High School junior hopes to drop another 25 to 30 in the coming months with the continued support of doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"I've been eating right and running," said Nellis, of Shaler. "It's something I have to do every day, or I feel it's not complete."

To reach a healthy weight, Nellis sought the help of physicians, nutritionists and exercise specialists at the hospital's new Weight Management and Wellness Center in Oakland, which officially opened Thursday.

The center's mission is to help combat the childhood obesity epidemic and its complications such as Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure by focusing on behavioral modification, clinical director Dr. Goutham Rao said.

"We help the children to identify the behaviors leading to obesity and change them," Rao said.

The rate of children who are overweight or obese has more than tripled since 1980, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

About two-thirds of the more than 1,000 children treated so far at the new weight management center at Children's Hospital have lost weight or maintained their starting weight, Rao said.

"I had no idea you have to go through the procedures you have to do to get the weight down," said U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, who helped to secure a $3 million federal grant to open the center.

For more information about the center, call 412-692-5200.