Childhood Obesity= CHILD ABUSE

Yes, childhood obesity is running rampant but I don't believe it should be labeled as "child abuse". I really hate that term because everyone throws it around these days for multitudes of situations that are not close to abuse. Abuse is something that someone does to another with full knowledge of their actions and are trying to purposefully inflict pain or injury on a regular basis.

Most of the time a child is obese because the parent is obese and do not have the knowledge of how to eat properly. What needs to happen is EDUCATION. I don't have kids so I don't know the curiculum in schools but if there are not mandatory nutritional classes throughout a childs education there needs to be. One class in junior high doesn't cut it either. It needs to be on a regular basis throughout a childs school life. This is the only way that this cycle of bad eating habits is going to end.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm

read/watch these articles/reports

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdGYitGIIps

Answer one question for me: Do you have children?

I hate the misuse of the word "abuse"

it's like some people think that there are only two categories "good parenting" and "abuse" - i.e. more of the dichotomous thinking that seems to be so prevalent nowadays

parenting is on a scale, from excellent, to bad, with abuse at the very end of the bad end of the range. Most people who overfeed their kids are not being abusive, they;'re caring, attentive parents, who are giving their kids too much food, or not giving them enough opportunities to do physical activity. If those parents are going to be categorised as abusive, then what about the parents who don't check if their kids have done their homework, so the kid gets a detention the next day, or gets low grades when they should have got higher grades... is that abuse too? I mean seriously, I know you have to draw the line somewhere, but there's no such thing as a perfect parent (the scale I mentioned at the start of this paragraph starts at excellent) and some parents are better informed, better organised, better at guiding their kids and all that than others... but that doesn't make less good parents abusive.

To be honest I think it's insulting to people who have lived through child abuse for relatively trivial things to be classed as abuse. And yes I know childhood obesity itself is not a trivial issue, but overfeeding kids and failing to give them enough opportunities to do physical activity are not the result of parents not giving a damn about their kids or deliberately harming their kids. If anything, these mistakes come from love (too much food, well you feed kids because you don't want them to be hungry and you want to give them treats..... lack of opportunity to exercise, a lot of parents have exaggerated ideas about dangers to kids to they keep them indoors where it's safe, plus their kids want all this technology that keeps them on their backside staring at a screen, and they love their kids and want them to have nice things). They're actually quite common errors, and also bear in mind this is the inevitable result of modern society where we can get all the things we want delivered to our door and we don't actually have to do any physical activity any more... childhood obesity is part of a much wider social problem, in that we've become a society of lazy fat-arses. Even lots of people who don't look fat have too high a body fat percentage, so that comment about our society doesn't just apply to people who look obese - it applies to everyone who's sedentary no matter what actual size they are. Childhood obesity is because of this.

We live in a society where it takes effort to not be fat, and the sooner people accept that, the sooner they're going to start making that effort. And with kids the emphasis IMO should be on encouraging physical activity rather than trying to control what they eat, which can easily cause kids to have a bad relationship with food that makes obesity even harder to fight. Of course parents should provide healthy meals and limit high calorie snacks, but IMO the main emphasis needs to be on encouraging physical activity. And not just to stay thin because being sedentary is unhealthy for a whole lot of different reasons, not just increasing the risk of becoming obese.

Wait a second? I'm to blame for my fat cat? What do you think I do, hold her down and shove kibble in her mouth?

You know when she got fat? When I took her in, spayed her and forced her into a sedentary indoor lifestyle. Lack of activity kills, but there is no way I could replicate the exercise she got outdoors.

Extremely simple solution. Feed the cat less food. If its fat, its overeating. As the one providing the food, yes, its absolutely on you.

Have you ever tried that with a cat? Do you know what happens? The cat sleeps more. You can feed them the most ridiculously small amounts of food and they will be damned if they lose any weight. They will eat the tomatoes on the counters first. They will poop in your bed.

Mine didn't...he did lose weight, however, I kinda feel like he developed an eating disorder for awhile. He would only eat if you were in the kitchen with him. It was weird. Now he has this extra skin hanging off just one of his sides.

Childhood obesity is a serious disease afflicting many children, especially in the United States. According to the CDC, more than one in three American children were profiled as overweight or obese .......that's one of every three kids! In the past thirty years, childhood obesity has quadrupled in adolescents and doubled in children in America. Obesity is a serious illness, just as serious as every other illness if not worse because it causes so many other ailments. If parents are responsible enough to take their children to the doctor when they have a fever or indicate illness, parents should also be responsible and accountable for monitoring their children's health in other ways, specifically weight and dietwise if they see or the doctor sees that their health is in jeopardy due to weight problems. Children should be taught how to eat in moderation and eat balanced meals with appropriate portions. I am really upset by the LAZINESS of parents who do not look out for their children's health. The only excuse may be the inability to afford healthy foods.......which then becomes a fault of the system. Still, even without health foods, moderation of unhealthy foods and encouragement of physical activity could help prevent any large excess of weight. Why aren't people doing more to help their own children?

If the child is still at the age where they rely on the parents for nutritional advice, meal preparation, and is basically dependent then I really don't see any excuse why the parents shouldn't be to blame. Especially for sick small children who do not know any better (less so for older teens because they are more in control of their own eating behaviors).

OP has started two "blame the parents" threads and one "mean people" thread in under 12 hours. She seems genuine, if misguided, but at this point I'm starting to smell troll.

Also, in!

Have you ever tried that with a cat? Do you know what happens? The cat sleeps more. You can feed them the most ridiculously small amounts of food and they will be damned if they lose any weight. They will eat the tomatoes on the counters first. They will poop in your bed.

I would have done the same if my parents tried to put me on a diet.
All of it.

Children have mind's of their own. Raising them is not nearly as easy as non-parents sometimes think it is. Especially when they are about 21 and lack life experience.

If they're 21 and still eating your food...better to think of them as annoying roommates than someone to be "raised". That ship has already sailed.

Anyone recommending that kids be put into foster care doesn't know the first thing about foster care.