An inpatient program for children with Prader-Willi Syndrome and other weight-related disorders.
Search no further for inpatient obesity treatment.
Young people with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) face significant obstacles that impact every aspect of life. The challenging behaviors, excessive weight gain, food-seeking tendencies, and learning difficulties associated with PWS and other conditions can leave children and caregivers feeling overwhelmed.
The Jump Start Program at Nexus Children’s Hospital offers the only inpatient setting in the United States specifically designed to treat the behavioral, metabolic, and medical challenges of Prader-Willi Syndrome. In a safe, structured environment, our interdisciplinary team addresses behavioral dysregulation, cognitive impairment, hyperphagia, and food-seeking tendencies, while treating co-occurring medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, pulmonary complications, and orthopedic issues. Our goal is to ensure patients are medically stabilized and to establish healthy routines that can be replicated by caregivers at home, because we’re committed to mending minds.
Changing lives with remarkable outcomes – 2025 program data across 44 patients:
2,555 total pounds lost
18.58% average BMI decrease
Check out the following video to learn more about Nexus’ Jump Start Program.
Treating behavioral challenges, obesity, and weight-related medical complications.
In the Jump Start Program, we treat every aspect of the patient: behavioral challenges that demand psychiatric intervention, functional limitations requiring skilled therapies, and the metabolic conditions that compound each. Hyperphagia, the neurological drive to seek and consume food without reaching satiety, can only be managed through continuous environmental control. Because of this, an inpatient setting provides what home and outpatient care cannot: a fully food-secure environment, around the clock.
Program features:
Behavioral programming
- Personalized token economy with structured reinforcement, real-time behavioral tracking, and weekly adjustments by the interdisciplinary team to reduce dysregulation and build adaptive skills
Nutrition and food security
- Individually developed, nutritionally complete, and calorie-controlled meal plans overseen by a registered dietitian, combined with locked food storage, supervised mealtimes, and food security protocols
- Monitored water intake to prevent hyponatremia
Medical and psychiatric care
- On-site physician, psychiatrist, and advanced practice providers with 24/7 on-call coverage
- Medication management tailored to each patient’s metabolic and cognitive profile
- Coordination with specialty providers, including endocrinology and pulmonology, as needed
Rehabilitative and educational programming
- Physical, occupational, and speech therapies targeting mobility, fine motor skills, and communication
- Recreational therapy to build social engagement and functional leisure skills
- Individualized physical training with standardized baseline and discharge testing
- Concurrent education accredited by the Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Family and discharge preparation
- Structured caregiver education beginning at admission: token economy coaching, meal protocols, and de-escalation strategies
- Discharge planning coordinated with the patient’s home school district and outpatient providers from day one
- Outcomes tracking using validated clinical assessments, wearable activity data, and InBody body composition analysis
Research-driven, data-informed care.
At Nexus Children’s Hospital, research is built into the Jump Start Program to directly enhance the treatment children receive every day. By studying how body composition, physical activity, and health markers change during a patient’s stay, our team is uncovering insights that inform and improve individualized care in real time.
To gather this data, patients participate in regular assessments using advanced tools, including:
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Wearable devices, which track heart rate, steps, calories, and other metrics while motivating patients to reach daily goals.
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InBody scanner, which provides detailed body composition analysis, measuring fat, muscle, and water distribution.
Combined with behavioral tracking through the program’s token economy, these insights help clinicians understand what drives lasting progress. Over time, the data also allows researchers to link outcomes to medications, co-existing conditions, and other differentiators, paving the way for more personalized and effective treatment approaches.
By continuously tracking and analyzing patient data, the Jump Start Program ensures every child benefits from the latest advances in PWS care.
Meet a Jump Start Program success story.
“Nexus helped tremendously with the weight loss. They put Kale on an amazing diet plan that we still follow at home today. Nexus also assisted him with becoming more stable and mobile through physical and occupational therapy.”
— Danika, patient’s mother
Admission Criteria
- Ages 7 up to 21
- PWS or other rare genetic disorder
Common Comorbid Conditions
- Type II diabetes and associated complications
- Hypertension and heart disease
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
- Fatty liver
- Obesity hypoventilation syndrome
- Intertrigo (skin breakdown, yeast, and bacterial infections in deep fat folds)
- Leg edema
- Mobility issues
- Cellulitis
- Venous stasis disease with risk of thrombotic events
What is Prader-Willi Syndrome?
PWS is a rare genetic disorder that affects learning and behavior resulting from an abnormality on the 15th chromosome. People with this genetic condition experience delayed or deficient satiation cues, causing them to overeat. To complicate matters further, those with PWS have unusually low caloric needs. The combination of these symptoms can lead to life-threatening conditions such as catastrophic obesity and stomach rupture, as well as maladaptive behaviors.
In pursuit of the feeling of fullness, individuals often develop powerful food-seeking habits. Some forage for food, consuming inedible products — such as raw, frozen, or spoiled food — out of desperation. Others place unauthorized delivery orders or strike out in search of restaurants. As this behavior escalates, individuals often resort to lying and stealing, sometimes breaking into neighbors’ houses or picking locks on kitchen cabinets. At the same time, caregivers may overestimate the individual’s caloric needs and unknowingly contribute to overeating.
Due to the rarity of the condition (affecting roughly 1 in 10,000 to 30,000 people worldwide1), robust programs that address both the medical and behavioral aspects of PWS are difficult to find. Jump Start is the only nationally recognized inpatient program offering comprehensive care for people with weight-related conditions such as PWS.
Challenges associated with PWS:
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Life-threatening childhood obesity
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Pulmonary issues, from obstructive sleep apnea to intubation secondary to obesity
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Medical complications such as type 2 diabetes, decreased growth hormone, fatty liver, and bowel obstruction
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Dermatillomania, or skin-picking
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Orthopedic issues including scoliosis, hip dysplasia, osteoporosis, and poor tone and balance
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Cognitive impairments, intellectual disabilities, and low IQs
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Severe behavior dysregulation associated with food-seeking
