Healthy Living & Weight Management

SickKids Team Obesity Management Program (STOMP)

The SickKids Team Obesity Management Program (STOMP) is a weight management program focusing on healthy living. Our program uses treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy, motivational interviewing and family therapy. These involve learning more about how your thoughts, feelings and behaviours are linked, as well as how to improve overall family functioning and to increase healthy living practices. Using these approaches, the program helps patients and their families make healthy choices that affect nutrition, physical activity and overall health.

Our goals

improve your health and quality of life
improve coordination of your care
improve communication between care providers about your care
involve you and your family at all times
educate future care providers about how to care for other children with obesity
learn how to improve the health of children with obesity through research

How we help

You will receive support from the interdisciplinary STOMP team. Our doctors, nurses, dietitians, exercise therapist, physiotherapist, psychologists and social worker work closely together to provide you with comprehensive care. Our coordinator works hard to ensure things run smoothly for you.

We will also organize various tests to screen for any medical issues. These can include blood work, a sleep study, diagnostic imaging, measurement of body composition and questionnaires on issues such as self-esteem and quality of life.

Our programs

Teen Program

A two-year program for children between the ages of 12 and 17 who, along with their parents, will participate in an eight-week curriculum and support group. Individual follow-up with members of our interdisciplinary team will also be completed.

Following the eight-week group, families will attend monthly nutrition groups and be scheduled for individual follow-up as needed. Teens are also followed medically every three to six months.

Occasionally, we consider additional tools to manage weight including medications and bariatric surgery.

Early Years/School Age Program

A two-year program for children six months to 11 years. Parents will attend a monthly curriculum and support group and be seen individually by members of our interdisciplinary team. Program participants will also be followed medically every three to six months.

In order to be considered for the program, we require a referral from your child’s primary care provider.

Once a referral is received, it is triaged and reviewed to ensure your child meets the program criteria. If your child meets criteria, you will be contacted and informed of the next steps to starting our program. This may involve booking your child directly for an intake assessment or inviting the family to attend our information session where you will meet with some members of the STOMP Team and learn more details about the program.

Once an intake assessment is completed, we will then start planning participation in the program.

Our research

There is little information available about benefit to children and adolescents who participate in obesity programs. In order to understand how effective the STOMP clinical program is in changing health and the quality of life of patients with obesity, we have an ongoing research study called the STOMP Evaluation Study. 

Every patient enrolled in the STOMP clinical program is eligible to participate in the study. To make it easy to participate in this study, all research visits are aligned with the patient and family's regular clinic visits and there are no extra procedures or tasks outside of the regular STOMP clinical measures.  

The results from this study will improve our understanding of the complex medical and psychosocial issues associated with obesity, and may form the basis for changes in clinical practice in this population of children. This research study also allows us to understand how the STOMP clinic influences patient and family satisfaction with the medical care provided by STOMP. 

Overall, the primary objective of this research study is to conduct an evaluation of the STOMP clinic as a model of care with a specific focus on: patient outcomes (anthropometric, metabolic, and psychosocial); and care coordination and care satisfaction.

We also conduct other studies within the program that will vary over time. These may include opportunities for children and adolescents not attending STOMP to participate.

Training opportunities for health-care professionals

We offer training opportunities for health-care practitioners interested in learning more about treatment of childhood obesity. These may include elective rotations or more in-depth training for medical students, residents, nurse practitioners, dietitians, exercise or mental health trainees.

Childhood Obesity Project ECHO

We lead the Childhood Obesity Project ECHO to deliver the best practices of care for children and adolescents with obesity. Health-care professionals who participate in ECHO gain professional interaction with specialist colleagues and no-cost continuing medical education while their patients receive best practice care without long waits or having to travel long distances for consultations. 

Sessions are held monthly from noon to 1 p.m. on a Thursday. Every session includes a brief talk on a relevant topic related to child obesity. Registration is free, and CME credits can be obtained.

Resource hub: Meant 2 Prevent

Our team has been working with other children’s hospitals in Canada to develop a resource hub for families and health-care professionals. It includes resources developed by our team as well as links to reliable resources that include mental health websites, parenting, nutrition, physical activity and sleep.

Visit Meant 2 Prevent