Should parents lose custody of super obese kids?

1. 61

   TMMasonposted 13 years ago

   Well?...
   
   I guess we could just give the lil babies to the State at birth.  That seems to be where the Leant Leftists end up anyway... so why fight it.
   
   
   
   ---"(AP)  CHICAGO - Should parents of extremely obese children lose custody for not controlling their kids' weight? A provocative commentary in one of the nation's most distinguished medical journals argues yes, and its authors are joining a quiet chorus of advocates who say the government should be allowed to intervene in extreme cases.
   
   
   It has happened a few times in the U.S., and the opinion piece in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association says putting children temporarily in foster care is in some cases more ethical than obesity surgery.
   
   
   Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital Boston, said the point isn't to blame parents, but rather to act in children's best interest and get them help that for whatever reason their parents can't provide.
   
   16-pound baby born in Texas, nicknamed 'Moose'
   Obesity gaining in the U.S, says report
   Does candy keep kids from getting fat?
   
   State intervention "ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible. That may require instruction on parenting," said Ludwig, who wrote the article with Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and a researcher at Harvard's School of Public Health.
   
   
   "Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention, it may sometimes be necessary to protect a child," Murtagh said...."---
   
   
   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/ … 9020.shtml

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      Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      "I guess we could just give the lil babies to the State at birth.  That seems to be where the Leant Leftists end up anyway... so why fight it."
      
      This isn't a Left / Right issue. It's an issue of adults abdicating their responsibility to someone else. It's a matter of "political correctness" speech and thinking, which belong to neither Left nor Right. It's a horrible outcome of people having their eyes closed and passing their responsibility over to someone else.
      
      I'm really sorry that HP forum topics combine politics and social issues. This is a huge social issue, but has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with un-thinking people willing to be sheep led to the slaughter.

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      OutWestposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Why stop there.  Maybe they should remove all children of households where the parent(s) smoke. _sarcasm.

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   klarawieckposted 13 years ago

   Oh! And cause yet more anxiety to a child that already has psychological trauma? Makes no sense to me. They need to help the parents, educate them on how to eat properly, and have a social worker monitor the child's diet.

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   psycheskinnerposted 13 years ago

   I would suggest people read the commentary (http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/306/2/206.extract) rather than assume they know what it says.  If you can get access to it, well, how do you expect to critique it?  You assume, perhaps, that the media article is even in the ballpark of representing it accurately?  I suspect not.

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      Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Wish I had access, but I don't. I know what you mean...the CBS news story is attempting to condense a huge issue into a few catchy words.

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4. 60

   KK Trainorposted 13 years ago

   Well Moose was that big, according to mom's doctors, because she had gestational diabetes, which apparently causes larger babies. I don't know if that will mean he has to be obese later on. Perhaps, although she has 2 other kids who aren't yet.
   
   You and I both know that there are some who feel that we mortals cannot make good decisions regarding our own lives or wellbeing. Therefore, the government must always be waiting in the wings to step in as soon as there is something they think we need help with. Come on, where are they when kids are being raped and beaten and kept in cages?! They want to focus on this because it is obvious to those around the poor kid in the classroom, who is probably already traumatized by the teasing of others anyway.  Michelle Obama wants to tell us all how to eat so that she can have all the french fries to herself! Just kidding, that's mean I know. But seriously, how far are liberals going to take this nanny state thing?
   
   I'm glad I don't have any kids because God forbid I want to take them out of school once a year for a few days at Disney World! They'll never graduate from 3rd grade, what a travesty!! We actually ran into that when we took our nephew, 2nd grade, and they practically wanted to call social services because he had missed 3 days of school.
   
   Get a life people, go after the ones who are sending their kids to school with bruises and scabs and rat bites. How about the ones who look like they haven't eaten for a week.

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5. 80

   psycheskinnerposted 13 years ago

   Okay, so we can't be reasonable so i will go with the devil's advocate approach:
   
   Yes, clearly doctors should be thrilled if their patients are being feed so badly they are going to die before they reach adulthood. 
   
   The freedom to abuse you kids is more important, just be sure to kill them by a non-violent method and nobody will care.
   
   In fact they will not even accept a pediatrician voicing an evidence-based  opinion about it in his profession's own peer-reviewed journal.
   
   Bad doctor, where did you get the idea that your job is to put the need of your patient first? If the kid got born to idiot parents, that's his or her problem.  The state will pay for the funeral.

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6. 84

   kerrygposted 13 years ago

   Taking the kids away from their parents (unless there is genuine abuse or neglect involved) seems like a terrible idea to me, one that would only increase the stress and misery of the kids.
   
   However, some sort of intervention is clearly necessary when it gets to the level described in another article I've read on this topic: a 90 pound three year old, a 555 pound 14 year old, a 400 pound 12 year old... If nothing is done, kids like that will be lucky to make it to 25.

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7. 65

   awareposted 13 years ago

   no  that's silly i think

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8. 0

   Home Girlposted 13 years ago

   We should always separate intentional abuse and something that poor parents have no control of. My mom used to feed me a lot of candies, when I was a small kid, just because I was sick often and she probably felt guilty by leaving me alone and going to work every day. I do not remember my age, but I remember being alone and eating all those candies. I could eat a lot of candies... I still have sugar addiction, I have to fight with it every day. I have to watch what I am eating, but I am not angry at my mom for that. She did not know any better. She could not afford a babysitter, but she had to work, and in my old country no one asked questions if you are leaving your baby alone as long as nothing happens. And things happened, believe me, I was very creative 
   But we surely have to educate parents nowadays. To feed kids french fries, colas, all kinds of sweets and buns from early age is a no-no and they should know that. Fruits and vegetables and peanuts are not that expensive. Oatmeal is easy to cook, or any other grains, just do not add sugar and fat to it. Kids should stay with parents unless they are brain dead, those parents.

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9. 80

   psycheskinnerposted 13 years ago

   As a teen I watched a neighbor kill her kid by excessive and bad diet (cake, she only ever fed the baby cake), the little girl dead by the age of 4. Obesity and malnutrition lead to heart failure and eventually death.
   
   If she had done it by starvation the kid could have been saved.
   
   That gives me a different outlook. I don't give a flying fig if it was mummy's fault or mummy *should* have been responsible. You shouldn't be allowed to kill your kids by any method, or ignore the advice of doctors trying to save the kid with complete legal impunity.

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      R.S. Hutchinsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I feel an edit coming soon... :0)

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         psycheskinnerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Oops. Just consider that as me stating what the thread here seems to endorse. That you should be allowed to.

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            Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Your sarcasm and irony are not missed. At least, not by most.

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            R.S. Hutchinsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I saw that you "fixed"  it. Ha ha .. I could tell by what you typed you were getting worked up about it.

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10. 74

    IntimatEvolutionposted 13 years ago

    Well....  they are killing them.  They might as well be beating their kids cause the damage that these parents are doing to their children's liver and heart...  these kids would be better off recovering from cuts and bruises!  Now as a woman who grew up in an incredibly physically abusive home, I don't say this lightly. 
    
    Diabetes.  Heart failure. Not too mention what the extra weight does to their bone structure...  I am telling you its a sad state affairs.

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       Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Clearly, you don't have any experience with obesity, or maybe you do? How it starts, what fuels it, and how it impacts an entire family's life. Obesity is not necessarily a result of abuse.
       
       But perhaps you are being ironic, too.

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          IntimatEvolutionposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Perhaps I do.   I am fat lady, so don't tell me....  Ironic my butt.  I weigh a whopping 245.  So don't you tell me that crap.  Your speaking to a fat chick.  You obviously haven't taken care of really sick fat kids who are sick because of their weight.  Or maybe you have....  ironic indeed.  Its criminal when a kid can't breath because they're fat.  Or are dying of heart failure because the fat around their heart is strangling it.  Ironic indeed.  It is abuse of the worst kind!!!

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             Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             You and I are on the same page. Sent you an email through HP.

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    KK Trainorposted 13 years ago

    Wow, you think 245 is big? My husband has three sisters and all three are obese. And I'm talking about a lot more than 245. His mother is a wonderful, if a little too nice, person who has always struggled with her own weight, as her own father did.
    
    Gee, do you people think that every household with "fat" people is abusive? There was never any abuse in their household, so could it possibly be something else?
    
    Oh my, could it be choosing to eat to much? Could it have anything to do with genetics? Oh, that wouldn't count as abuse so maybe not.
    
    Just let people be people, it's not abuse and those kids can choose to lose the weight when they're old enough to make their own decisions. Lord knows my niece, who inherited the "fat" thing, has struggled with it. But guess what, it's up to her if she wants to be overweight or not because no one is shoving food down her throat. (and she's beautiful by the way, just the way she is)

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       kerrygposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       In fairness, we're not talking about adults who have struggled with their weight their whole lives gradually getting worse and worse, we're talking about a three year old that weighs nearly as much as my 14 year old nephew and a 14 year old that weighs nearly as much as my entire household (three adults, a teenager, and two preschool/elementary aged children) put together.
       
       But I agree on the whole. From reading the article I linked in my earlier comment, it sounds like the problem isn't so much abuse as poverty. The mother of the 14 year old described working two jobs in order to survive as a single mom and eating mainly fast food because she didn't have enough time to cook. In a case like that, a free crockpot and some lessons in how to use it might be enough by itself to start turning her son's weight around.

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