Seriously?? Obesity and Child abuse questionable....
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I worked in the field of child protection as a front line worker and a supervisor for over 5 years, and I saw this on many occasions, each case is so complex, so to give an answer about whether the practice itself is right or wrong is impossible.. HOWEVER...
If the child was placed in foster care, that means that social workers intervened far in advance. The mother was educated about what she needed to do. She was provided all of the resources necessary to help her child. She obviously did not follow through, and therefore the court system, which would have included the recommendations of medical professionals, deemed it necessary to remove the child from her care for the sake of his health and well-being.
Obviously, in THIS case it was the correct decision. The child has lost 250 lbs. Being taken from his mother, who obviously was unable or unwilling to appropriately care for him, may have literally saved his life.
The mother may have severe emotional and/or other issues of her own which rendered her incapable of assisting her child, so there is no reason to place judgment on her, however. That is why the social service system in in place.0 -
Yes, I think it was child abuse/neglect and the arrest was justified. Who would do that to their child? That is the equivalent of starving a child, in my opinion. She does not deserve to have him and I am glad he is getting down to a healthy weight. Poor baby.
Really, that is just ridiculous. Just because her child is overweight doesn't mean she needs to be arrested. That is dumb! Plain and simple! I was an overweight child and I don't believe arrest is the solution and breaking up the family isn't either! Educate the parent and child! All I can say is WOW!
You see it how you like, and I will see it how I like. That IS what they did, so obviously someone agreed. I just do not like to see children put in harms way, and I feel that was harming the poor baby, personally. I did not ask you or anyone else to agree with me, but you didn't need to say what I said was dumb, either. We can agree to disagree. It's really not going to hurt my feelings.0 -
Its the parents fault from the begining if the child becomes obese..if there not teaching there child to exercise and eat healthy then yes the parents should be punished for letting there child get obese in the first place!!
What if the parent doesn't know how to lead a healthy life and isn't educated about nutrition. I have been overweight most my life until I became educated on what to do to get healthy and stay healthy. Punish the parent, really?
YES
it's a parents job to know enough about nutrition to keep their child healthy. it's negligence pure and simple. You cannot use ignorance as an excuse.0 -
Its the parents fault from the begining if the child becomes obese..if there not teaching there child to exercise and eat healthy then yes the parents should be punished for letting there child get obese in the first place!!
What if the parent doesn't know how to lead a healthy life and isn't educated about nutrition. I have been overweight most my life until I became educated on what to do to get healthy and stay healthy. Punish the parent, really?
Punish the kid for the ignorance of the parents???? HELL YES PUNISH THE PARENTS!! Probably should have been smart enough to not have kids in the first place.0 -
I'm really on the fence on this one. On one hand I do believe it should be considered child abuse/neglect. They can't eat the bad foods if those foods aren't in the house! However, I'm also not one to just to the conclusion of removing the child from the house and charging the parents. A lot if it is more about a lack of knowledge about nutrition. Parents aren't setting out to overfeed their children and a lot of people just don't understand how much all that junk affects them and their children. You often hear obese ppl saying "but I hardly eat anything so I just don't understand why I'm so big".. well that may be true and a lot of obese ppl ARE malnourished, but that's often because the foods they do eat are garbage. I would be inclined to say that it would be a far more economical and successful option to bring people into the home to teach the parents how to eat, what to buy, and what portion sizes to use for their children and themselves. How much does it cost our social system to take a child out of the house and raise them via foster care (cuz we know not all of these kids will have other family members to take them) in comparison to having a nutritionist or someone in that field to go into the home and teach the parents. Give the parents a chance to fix the problem they created before outright taking their children away.0
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Its the parents fault from the begining if the child becomes obese..if there not teaching there child to exercise and eat healthy then yes the parents should be punished for letting there child get obese in the first place!!
What if the parent doesn't know how to lead a healthy life and isn't educated about nutrition. I have been overweight most my life until I became educated on what to do to get healthy and stay healthy. Punish the parent, really?
YES
it's a parents job to know enough about nutrition to keep their child healthy. it's negligence pure and simple. You cannot use ignorance as an excuse.
I think I love you0 -
hard subject and interested to see the views of others..........
My penny for what it is worth, would be that there is no one size fits all (no pun intended) to every situation.
In this case, the child has been taken in to care, which is sad of course, but we also need to consider the parenting skills of the mother and father in general. Their social and economic "standing", I think we all know its a dam site easier and cheaper to buy non healthy foods and there is that possibility that this was all they could afford.
I think im saying that every situation is going to be very different, and each should be treated as such with the best interests of child AND mum and dad at heart.0 -
I belive it is abuse in young kids like elementary age becuase they are not being given the proper guidelines of what to eat I know a 10 year girl who is more than twice my size and I am 5'4 and about 150 she is not much shorter then me and the crazy thing is her mom lost over 100lbs all thru diet and exercise but she contiues to let her kids become obese i just dont get it but It breaks my heart to see obese kids They get pick on often feel bad and go to the extreme to get friends This is why future generations have shorter life spans. I have even seen parents use healthy foods as form of punshiment in the resturants the dad said "if you dont behave you will get salad instead of cheesebuger" crazy0
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simpley being stupid doesnt mean you get away with murder- and if the child was left in her care and died, it WOULD have been murder. simply being over weight isnt the issue here. this 13 year old was 400 pounds! thats not just being over weight! that's sick, for the parent to not care enought about her child to know when he needs help!0
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Its the parents fault from the begining if the child becomes obese..if there not teaching there child to exercise and eat healthy then yes the parents should be punished for letting there child get obese in the first place!!
What if the parent doesn't know how to lead a healthy life and isn't educated about nutrition. I have been overweight most my life until I became educated on what to do to get healthy and stay healthy. Punish the parent, really?
YES
it's a parents job to know enough about nutrition to keep their child healthy. it's negligence pure and simple. You cannot use ignorance as an excuse.
I think I love you
I just don't understand how a child gets to 400 lbs. My goodness. If that was my child I'd move mountains to figure out what the problem was, before the child even got to 200.
This makes me so upset for the child and what he had to endure.0 -
Absolutely not necessary!! Taking a child out of his home, away from family.....helpful? I think not. Education, tools, management skills....yes............Arrest...NO! I think that parents and children are led astray by the media and the hyped up commercials for all the fast food chains out there. I remember being astounded the first time I actually looked up the caloric content of McDonalds food.....horrible! But, none of that info gets out there....you have to look for it. Take a hard look at our society and what we have done to families......not to mention the cost of "healthier" foods.....single parents working two and three jobs to try and provide and our children left to their own devices. Education and making tools and food accessible would be a good start. I do agree, however, that an intervention was necessary for the childs well being,. but arresting his parents....what does that accomplish?0
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Apparently the system worked in favor of the child, as the poster mentioned who has experience with child protective services... There must be major problems in that house. Anyway how does a child get to be 400 pounds anyway? How many calories is that a day? Awful situation.0
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Just gonna say...the kid was 400 pounds at age 13. You don't become 400 lbs in a short amount of time. This was long-term and on-going.
You see it how you like, and I will see it how I like. That IS what they did, so obviously someone agreed. I just do not like to see children put in harms way, and I feel that was harming the poor baby, personally. I did not ask you or anyone else to agree with me, but you didn't need to say what I said was dumb, either. We can agree to disagree. It's really not going to hurt my feelings.
Really, that is just ridiculous. Just because her child is overweight doesn't mean she needs to be arrested. That is dumb! Plain and simple! I was an overweight child and I don't believe arrest is the solution and breaking up the family isn't either! Educate the parent and child! All I can say is WOW!Yes, I think it was child abuse/neglect and the arrest was justified. Who would do that to their child? That is the equivalent of starving a child, in my opinion. She does not deserve to have him and I am glad he is getting down to a healthy weight. Poor baby.0 -
He's lost 250 pounds already? I am happy that he is getting healthy. If being taken away from his mother was the impetus behind his weight loss then I can't argue it was wrong. I do hope that he can live with his mother again and not gain any weight back.0
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Several of you clearly do not understand how the system works... They would not have just went in and said, "Wow that kids fat, foster care for him!" They would have done all of that stuff you are preaching about... educating the mother, getting them in touch with a nutritionist, making sure they had the appropriate finances in place to buy healthy foods, etc. For the child to have been removed, and the mother charged... that means she ignored all of this assistance and continued to let her child suffer..
Does that change your opinion?0 -
Yes, I think it was child abuse/neglect and the arrest was justified. Who would do that to their child? That is the equivalent of starving a child, in my opinion. She does not deserve to have him and I am glad he is getting down to a healthy weight. Poor baby.
Really, that is just ridiculous. Just because her child is overweight doesn't mean she needs to be arrested. That is dumb! Plain and simple! I was an overweight child and I don't believe arrest is the solution and breaking up the family isn't either! Educate the parent and child! All I can say is WOW!
Really? You were almost 300 pounds overweight as a child?
I don't necessarily believe she shoudl have been arrested, but I agree with him being removed for the time being and that both the child and the mother receive education on proper nutrition.0 -
What if the parent doesn't know how to lead a healthy life and isn't educated about nutrition. I have been overweight most my life until I became educated on what to do to get healthy and stay healthy. Punish the parent, really?
You don't have to be educated to know that eating a box of ho ho's is bad. 400 pounds for a child is huge and you don't get that way by making a few bad choices here or there. I believe that the mother should lose custody. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a form of child abuse.0 -
I personally do not agree with this, at all. Example.. my son will be 4 in october. He is 42" tall and weighs 60 lbs. He is a BIG kid for 4 years old. Does he eat nothing but unhealthy crap? no. He LOVES fruits and vegetables, eats lots of lean meats, he does get to eat a happy meal occassionally, maybe once every couple of weeks, he is a VERY active kid, always running around. He is 4 and wears a size 6/7 HUSKY size pants. Should he be taken away from me since he is considered overweight for his age? NO! He is not over fed, eats lots of healthy foods, this is just the way he is built. My husband is a big guy (6'4" around 250 lbs) and my dad and brother are both 6'8".
I don't think anyone would intentionally make their child obese (unless they were extremely sick in the head), the problem is that all these food companies make junk food much more accessible (and cheaper) than healthy options.. while that is no excuse, maybe the police should go after these food companies instead of parents!!!!0 -
Yes, I think it was child abuse/neglect and the arrest was justified. Who would do that to their child? That is the equivalent of starving a child, in my opinion. She does not deserve to have him and I am glad he is getting down to a healthy weight. Poor baby.
Really, that is just ridiculous. Just because her child is overweight doesn't mean she needs to be arrested. That is dumb! Plain and simple! I was an overweight child and I don't believe arrest is the solution and breaking up the family isn't either! Educate the parent and child! All I can say is WOW!
Just because you are over weight it makes it okay? Haha arent you something special.0 -
I personally do not agree with this, at all. Example.. my son will be 4 in october. He is 42" tall and weighs 60 lbs. He is a BIG kid for 4 years old. Does he eat nothing but unhealthy crap? no. He LOVES fruits and vegetables, eats lots of lean meats, he does get to eat a happy meal occassionally, maybe once every couple of weeks, he is a VERY active kid, always running around. He is 4 and wears a size 6/7 HUSKY size pants. Should he be taken away from me since he is considered overweight for his age? NO! He is not over fed, eats lots of healthy foods, this is just the way he is built. My husband is a big guy (6'4" around 250 lbs) and my dad and brother are both 6'8".
I don't think anyone would intentionally make their child obese (unless they were extremely sick in the head), the problem is that all these food companies make junk food much more accessible (and cheaper) than healthy options.. while that is no excuse, maybe the police should go after these food companies instead of parents!!!!
60 pound 4 year old or 400 pound 13 year old is kind of a big difference.0
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