Revisiting Cholesterol Screening for Kids

You might remember a post a bit ago about FDA guidelines concerning cholesterol screening for kids: Cholesterol Drugs Recommended for Some 8-Year-Olds. Well, I got another tidbit from the Baby 411 Blog that is really worth sharing. It is entitled New Cholesterol Screening Guidelines.

If you don't know about Baby 411 (despite my always talking about it and bringing it up), it was written by a Pediatrician and a Mom (2 separate people who are both mothers).

Anyway, here is the Baby 411 interpretation of the study:

1. All children do not need to have cholesterol levels checked. (These tests are also known as a fasting lipid panel, HDL/LDL/triglycerides)


2. More kids are at risk for having high cholesterol levels today because more kids are overweight...which often go hand in hand. Kids who are overweight, with Body Mass Index over 85th percentile should be screened.


3. Kids who have other risk factors for high cholesterol should be screened. These include family members with early heart attacks/disease (men younger than 55, women younger than 65) or high cholesterol levels.


4. Kids with high blood pressure, obesity, or diabetes, and kids who smoke should be screened.


5. Kids should be screened between two and ten years of age, and no one should be screened before age 2.


6. For kids over 8 years of age who have over 190 mg/dL LDL (that's really high folks), especially with other risk factors like obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, medications may be an option.

Should you have your kids screened? I guess if you follow the guidelines above, it's a good idea. Seeing it put out there in that way makes me feel a whole lot better about the whole thing. I STILL don't think that medication is the answer for little kids unless there are some kind of extenuating circumstances. EDUCATION for parents should be #1 on the list.

I was working out at Curves last week and they always have a "question of the week". The question was "These days, how often do children eat fast food?". Do you know what the answer was? ONCE A DAY. Now tell me, whose fault is that?