Obesity in Children

[jaspurr]

I was watchng Fox earlier and as this news article has reached your distant shores I thought I would get your feelings on the matter

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6402113.stm

Basically an 8 year old child is 4 times his normal weight and the authorities were considering taking him away from the mother for child cruelty/abuse. She feeds him 3 fried meals a day plus a snack every 20 minutes and blames the authorities for not acting sooner. What is it with this attitude of it is always someone else's fault? People need to take responsibility for their actions. As it was he is staying at home. Do you think they should interfere or leave them alone?

[alpha]

thats over 200 pounds!

its an interesting question though, typically i would say let people do what they chose to, but since it involves a child (at age 8 ), who you could argue does not have much control in the matter, i'm sorta on the fence on this issue

[BigTwinky]

While this is not child abuse, what the parents are willingly doing to the child is going to greatly harm him in the future, immediat and long term. The health issues this kid will have at a young age will be nasty, not to mention the emotional problems with going through school being the fat kid.

So while they are not physically hitting the kid, they are still doing huge damage to him.

You can even say its neglect. They would take the kid away if they were not feeding him, so this can be considered the other end of the spectrum.

While parents are a key part of any child growing up, just because you gave birth to the kid doesn't mean you have the right to do what you want with them.

You should need a liscence to breed. To many people have kids that should never even be taking care of a hamster.

The above was said assuming that there is nothing biologically wrong with the kid and that its the parents lifestyle and what they do to their kid that is making him the way he is.

[The_Crazy_Ace]

The authorities should most definitely intervene. Of course, determinin what the intervention and treatment for the child would be would open an even bigger can of worms.

[jaspurr]

Interesting. It seems none of the leave them alone voters are willing to say why.

[-Bar]

3 fried meals a day and snacks all the time.. that is dangreous.. kinda like our micky Ds boy who ate big macs for a solid month and was starting to get sick. I would say that a crimnal case would be a no but I feel that someone should intervene due to the safety of the kids health. I feel the parents have a right to feed their kid what they want as long as it is within reason but this hits the out of bounds line.

[{CLR}PermethiasRain]

hmmm thats a tough one obesity in kids can be from a few different reasons for some its genetics but for the parents who feed their kids like they are a bottomless pits it almost is a crime they are not givin their kids a chance society can be tough on over weight people all the jokes and allienation im a proud parent of two and i couldnt imagine one of my children being 4 times the weight they should be thats really sad in cases like that maybe someone should step in cause the parent obviously isnt lookin out for the childs best interest and a child certainly doesnt have the ability to make the choices until they are older that is good topic alot can be said about this one

[Zurog]

Skeletal Stress
High Blood Pressure
High Cholesterol
Balding
Sweat
Horrible smell
Tooth decay
Heart Attack (Potential Paralysis, Brain damage etc)

Not very fun stuff. No one wants to be or have any of those symptoms. However they all have one common attributer, obesity. So when you say "some 8 year old weighs 200 pounds," I'm some-what shocked and a little sad. However just because it's upsetting to see some kid whose going to have trouble down the road (most of us do regardless of our upbringing) does not mean this needs to be dumped on the government's shoes.

We do not live in a socialist society. It is not the governments job to take care of every single person in the nation. While government should be there to provide support and aid when times are dire (disasters, depressions etc) this is not something that falls under that category. In the case of this kid, it should fall on his parents to know what to and to not feed their kid. They should have a fair understanding of what is and isn't healthy, what is and isn't nutritious, if by nothing else than personal experience. If the government were tasked with going after every single parent who makes a bad decision regarding their child(rens) future, there would be no such thing as parents, just government agents raising kids.

So what, Zurog? Just gonna let the kid die because you don't want to shovel over extra money? No. I'm not saying that in the least. Helping kids like this lose weight, keep it off, and educating parents on the proper foods a child needs to properly developing is something that can be, and usually IS done by an NPO (Non-profit Organization). An example, which is the actual opposite of the situation, is the Christian Children's Fund, which helps kids get educated, eat, and stay healthy. There's a slew of information on the net available about obesity, how to prevent it, and how to get rid of it. http://www.obesity.org/

This is something PEOPLE need to do. This is not something that the government should just routinely take care of. We do not live in an Orwellian 1984 society, and trying compensate for anyone's inadequacies as a parent or a human being is perpetuating a control society. Who is Oceania at war with? No thanks, not me. If people were truly taken aback by this, get involved in an NPO that helps fight something like this. I'm sure they're out there.

PS: PermethiasRain: There's this thing to the left of the comma and to the right of the question mark. It's called a period. Proper punctuation is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack, off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse. <3

[thedeadlyassassin]

Thedeadlyassassin's theory!


Fossil Fuels will not cause global warming, all the fat people's farts will

[{CLR}PermethiasRain]

lol zurog i will keep that in mind thx for the tip

[Zurog]

Thedeadlyassassin's theory!


Fossil Fuels will not cause global warming, all the fat people's farts will

Actually, scientists agree, more pirates = less global warming, which negates any flatulent.

[BigTwinky]

hmmm thats a tough one obesity in kids can be from a few different reasons for some its genetics but for the parents who feed their kids like they are a bottomless pits it almost is a crime they are not givin their kids a chance society can be tough on over weight people all the jokes and allienation im a proud parent of two and i couldnt imagine one of my children being 4 times the weight they should be thats really sad in cases like that maybe someone should step in cause the parent obviously isnt lookin out for the childs best interest and a child certainly doesnt have the ability to make the choices until they are older that is good topic alot can be said about this one

Dude, you typed all that with no spaces or punctuation.

[{CLR}PermethiasRain]

i know it wont happen again sorry

[juneau]

i know it wont happen again sorry

[Scowl]

"He refuses to eat fruit, vegetables and salads - he has processed foods.

"When Connor won't eat anything else, I've got to give him the foods he likes.

"I can't starve him."

This part stuck out for me. No, I'm not the supreme authority on proper child rearing, but this lady is way too soft on her kid. Reading the above quote, the first thing I thought of was, "Why not? He'll eat fruits and vegetables before letting himself starve to death." I mean, come on. Here's a salad, here's some fruit, there's your dinner. Eat it, or don't eat at all. And what's all this "he refuses" crap? How about if he refuses to go to school? "Hey, mom, I refuse to look both ways before crossing the street. I refuse to listen to you. I refuse to obey the law."

Hell, when I was a kid I sure wished that I could refuse anything my parents told me to do. And I'm certain that, if that were the case, now I'd be dead or in jail.