Should parents lose custody of super obese kids?

[Giggle Goose]

http://news.yahoo.com/parents-lose-c...200342454.html

Not sure how I feel about this....one the one hand, there are a LOT of stresses for parents today....particularly parents that may have to work 2+ jobs just to support their family and can't always cook a nutritious meal.

Then you have parents who are just lazy and just feed their kids nothing but fast food. I mean....the article talks about a girl who was 400 pounds at age 12. Who's to blame for these types of situations, and is putting kids in foster care really the answer?

[Boozy]

If you want these children to survive to see adulthood, yes. They need to be removed from that home.

It's better to discuss solutions to the difficulties of low-income parenting after the emergency situation has been handled. And a 400 pound 12 year-old is a medical emergency.

[protege]

I have a better solution. Take away their damn video games.

In my neighborhood, you'd always see kids playing outside, no matter how hot it was. I never spent hours sitting on my ass playing video games. My mom was all about "it's a nice day, take your toys outside and play."

[telecom_goddess]

Low income or not they are getting a TON of food somewhere, it would take a lot of steady all day eating to reach that weight that young. Damn.

But yeah I would think some intervention would be good in this case.

[Andara Bledin]

Considering that it appears that temporary to permanent loss of custody of the children is one of the last resorts, I can see that being a possible necessity for the safety and long-term health for some of them. In one example, custody was given to the mother's sister and the child has lost 200 lbs.

The article mentions one case that involved a 3-year-old who weighed 400 lbs. That's just disturbing. Without some form of intervention, the odds of that child becoming an adult were very low, as she already suffered from a number of common weight-related problems. Another was hospitalized and nearly died due to her obesity.

I'm not sure I can buy the "not enough time to cook" argument, particularly from parents of children who are in their teens. Everybody can make campfire stew. Everybody can make salad. Get a steamer and everybody can make steamed rice; throw in some pre-packaged veggies, some pre-packaged, pre-cooked meat, a little sauce, and you've got a great, low-cost, easy-to-make, healthy meal.

When you have children, you take on the responsibility to see to it that they are given healthy meals. If you work too much and you're too tired to see to it that they have those, the solution is not to just drive through whatever fast food joint is the most convenient.

^-.-^

[Giggle Goose]

Yeah, I'm still trying to fathom how much one would have to eat in order to weigh over 400 pounds at age 12. I was a chubby kid myself for many obvious reasons...busy parents, etc. I would also sneak food behind their back. But 400 pounds? That is just mind-boggling.

[AdminAssistant]

I have a better solution. Take away their damn video games.

Um, no. I played a lot of video games as a child, and I was relatively thin (back then) and also spent some time outside. Sorry, but the, "Darn kids these days are lazy and stupid and everything was better in MY time!" attitude doesn't hold weight (heh) with me.

[Nyoibo]

I think there's deffinately times when parents "don't have time" to cook, but get fast food instead are just being lazy, I know that if I want to get fast food on the way home I either have to make a detour that takes about 15 minutes or more depending on the time I have to wait for the food, or wait at the nearest takeaway place for at least 10-15 minutes, I can cook up special fried rice with egg, prawns, bacon/pork/chorizo, peas, carrots, spring onion for 4 people in that time, from scratch, I would regularly cook for my mother and my girlfriend, make full meals and not spend more than 15-20 minutes in the kitchen, cooking really doesn't take that long.

Controling what chldren eat is easy, if you don't have the food there, they can't eat it, my mother never used to have snacks or junkfood at home and I didn't have money to buy crap, I didn't start to have a problem with my weight until I started to buy food myself.

[HYHYBT]

Canned soup is unpopular lately, but it's still quick and easy, and hard to get fat off of.

[Andara Bledin]

The time thing can be perfectly valid for a lot of people. I have at least 20 fast food places within half a mile of my 4-mile trip between my work and my home. It is absolutely faster and easier for me to pop into one of those and grab something to eat on the way home than to throw the rice in the pot. It's also about 10 times more expensive, and not nearly as healthy, even if I do mostly get chicken.

Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, mom-n-pop taco place, Fatburger, Jack in the Box, Popeyes, Taco Bell, Super Mex, Fantasy Burger, McDonalds, Church's Chicken, El Pollo Loco, Burger King, Boy's Hamburgers, El Taco Loco, Weinerschnitzel, El Pollo Loco, KFC, Rally's, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell/Pizza Hut Express. And that's only counting the places with drive through service. I likely could double that if I also looked for the ones that allow pickups, such as the half dozen pizza joints and the dozen Chinese shops. With a call in to one of those, it takes less than 5 minutes extra to pick up dinner on the way home.

But that's still no excuse at all. If your kids are in high school, they're more than old enough to know how to cook dinner for the family.

^-.-^

[anakhouri]

I am torn on this.

One one hand, I feel parents should be allowed to raise their kids however they want, regardless of what other people think of their choices (unless they're being abused, and part of this controversy concerns whether letting your kid get fat is abuse).

Saying 'people are lazy and kids need to play outside' is too simplistic. For example, many obese children live in poor neighborhoods where it is not safe to play outside.

My personal opinion is that proper education can solve about 90% of the world's problems. If the parents are brought in and told the truth about their child's condition and that they could lose their child because of it, and then educated on quick, cheap, and easy cooking, and given access to resources so their children can get exercise and healthy food, I can't imagine any parent wouldn't take advantage of that. Some classes on discipline and saying 'no' would also be needed because by the time a kid is 14 or so, they're pretty entrenched in their lifestyle and will certainly protest a change.

You have to change attitudes too, which is difficult but can be done. Surely most of these parents are not so much neglectful as simply raising their kids the way they were raised.

(and...a 90 lb 3-year-old?! My 2-year-old weighs about 30 lbs, and my arms ache when I have to carry him. I can't believe the kid didn't lost weight just from walking because her parents couldn't carry her)

[BlaqueKatt]

unless they're being abused, and part of this controversy concerns whether letting your kid get fat is abuse.

If underfeeding is, overfeeding is as well, and just because a child is overweight DOES NOT mean they aren't malnourished-nutrition is about vitamins and minerals as well as calories.

Saying 'people are lazy and kids need to play outside' is too simplistic. For example, many obese children live in poor neighborhoods where it is not safe to play outside.

Or the media with their "OMG there are 50 kiddie snatchers outside YOUR DOOR THIS SECOND!!!!!!" "West nile!!! SWINE FLU!!!!OMG WOOD TICKS!!!!!run for your lives"

(and...a 90 lb 3-year-old?! My 2-year-old weighs about 30 lbs, and my arms ache when I have to carry him. I can't believe the kid didn't lost weight just from walking because her parents couldn't carry her)

I very rarely see ANY parent holding or carrying their child, it's carseat to stroller, no walking, no carrying....

[Glados]

I am torn on this as well. In the examples given of 400+ pound teenagers, I fully agree that is abuse and intervention is needed. However, I am not a fan of giving CPS further authority to get involved in a family's medical situation. The sad truth of CPS is that they do not have the resources to fully research a medical case and we risk, over time, the lines becoming blurred and kids being taken for only being somewhat overweight.

I only support this idea of a strict burden of proof is met. CPS should have to prove that the parent has been given medical information on the risks as well as counseling on nutrition and exercise and still refuses to monitor their child before the state can take a child.

[Canarr]

I'm with Glados on questioning the wisdom of giving CPS that kind of power. A lot of children nowadays are overweight, without being such extreme cases as detailed in that article. If that alone were to serve as criteria, many parents could lose their children on nothing more than, say, a mutual love of chocolate cake.

Yes, the cases shown are clearly examples of a situation where the parents are unable to keep their children healthy, and thus, they should lose custody over that - even if only temporary. But that shouldn't happen everytime some kid's BMI goes above 20 or so.

[anakhouri]

I think Glados is 100% correct; the system has to be sure the parents know better, they have to give them a chance to change, and then, if the parents show they are unwilling or unable to make the change, then temporarily take the kids. This would have to be done because who knows what kind of psychological damage taking a kid away from their parents is going to do? I for one would not want to risk that unless I knew for certain that the kid was likely to die from obesity.