[A new method of treating obesity in children--experience from two therapy camps (author's transl)]

A report is given on a new method of treating obesity in children. In the summer of 1973 two "therapy camps" were held by the Vienna Univeristy Children's Clinic in co-operation with the Salzburg section of the Osterreichisches Jugendferienwerk (Holidays for Young People) in a particularly beautiful area of the Austrian countryside. For the duration of the camps the children were served with a diet containing very little easily digestible carbohydrate (simple sugar) but unlimited calories, and at the same time given physical training and encouraged to spontaneous activity. In addition to a satisfactory loss of weight, the children's habits were considerably altered. The changes in attitude necessary to maintaining the diet and the required level of physical activity were retained in a high percentage of cases over the six months' follow-up period of observation. Medically the therapy camps correspond approximately to stationary hospitalized reducing therapy but have the advantages of being more attractive to the child and considerably preferable for physiological and paedagogical reasons since they offer an effective means of providing the child with a better motivation for achieving a normal weight. In addition, therapy camps are much more economic and can be held on a much broader baiss without blocking hospital beds that are needed for other cases. For these reasons the above-mentioned groups intent to hold therapy camps throughout the next years.