About us

No child chooses to be overweight. And every parent wants to see their child grow up healthy, which is not always easy in our society. At PositiveOverWeight, we want to make the best care available for all children in the Netherlands, in order to help reduce the number of overweight children.

We guide overweight children and their parents to a healthy future. To that end, a good parent-child relationship is central to our treatment plan. We work in a network of independent professionals specialised in the treatment of overweight children. Due to the good mutual contact within this group of healthcare professionals, and our shared vision of the care we provide, our patients (children and parents) experience that they are helped by one team.

Our care is accessible to all children. We work using a solution-oriented approach, where we ask the child and their family to first sketch a clear picture of their desired future. Then we work towards that image, rather than focusing on the problems. We build on what is going well instead of dwelling on what is not possible or not allowed. In other words, we are Positive Over Weight!

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Ever since I began my career as a pediatrician, I’ve been responsible for treating overweight children. The role of the pediatrician has always been primarily limited to identifying health risks and to providing advice to parents. Partly due to the limited time available in a hospital, this guiding role was limited. And this is precisely the time when there is the most to gain. In recent years there has been so much more knowledge built up about the causes of childhood obesity and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. I decided that I no longer wanted to be a physician that just watched children gain weight and develop health problems. PositiveOverWeight arose out of that decision. Not because I have the success formula for all these children, but because I believe that with the right knowledge and coaching expertise in the healthcare team, children can achieve a lot. Because, in the end, a healthy lifestyle is the best medicine. I, along with my network, want to help children and their parents find the right lifestyle balance to be able to march confidently into a healthy future together.

Dr. Saskia Bouma is a member of the Child Obesity Expertise group within the Dutch Society of Pediatric Medicine, and is co-author of a new treatment guideline for children suffering from obesity. She is the first pediatrician that  is also trained as a lifestyle coach.

Caroline Blankespoor provides administrative support for The Pediatric Practice. She can also assist you by phone or e-mail to help you make appointments and with questions. She is a medical secretary by profession and has always enjoyed her work, which has included an outpatient clinic for pulmonary diseases as well as outpatient neurology clinics at several hospitals. In her spare time Caroline enjoys being creative, exercising her talents in drawing, watercolor painting and photography.

The pediatricians are affiliated with the Dutch association of Pediatric Medicine (NVK) and meet all their associated quality requirements.