I am a single mother to 3 kids, David is my youngest one. David has had a rough start from the beginning, as I was diabetic and pregnant. So from the time he was born he was already a larger child.  He loves to eat and as a single parent, I am thankful to have support from my family, unfortunately, others are sometimes set in their way of eating which ends up transferring to David’s eating habits.  Luckily for me, I had been working with the wonderful Dr. Pisharody who has a great love of helping children who have and are at risk of metabolic syndrome.  From her, I was able to recognize in my own child his risks and was able to get him the proper labs to see for myself that his diet was not a healthy and sustainable one.  Now, in my household, we have a very diverse and healthy palate for vegetables and fruit and my kids love drinking water, but clearly, the family also has a pension for sweets and carbs.  As soon as I brought David to his first appointment with Dr. Pisharody, she was able to explain to him the pros of choosing better foods and the cons of excessive sugar intake.  He was able to see Leslie Lee, our dietician, who helped David come up with alternate ways to incorporate healthier food choices. David was able to consider this information and in the year that he has been seeing Dr. Pisharody and Leslie, he has been more inclined to make healthy choices and really enjoys vegetables more than he did before.  Leslie Lee has a great way of interacting with David and formulating plans one step at a time so that they aren’t overwhelming to David or me.  I love that they have added Dr. Laroche to the team.  She was able to explain and formulate a plan, to help with the endocrine side of metabolic syndrome and had such a great bedside manner with my family.  I have no doubt that the joint efforts of David and his team of healthcare providers will be able to continue to motivate David to a healthier lifestyle.