Should parents lose custody of super obese kids?

[tropicsgoddess]

If the parent willfully neglects the child's health and refuses to do anything about their weight, yes.

[DrFaroohk]

I would think that if that's the only thing they can find wrong with the kid, leave it alone. He's getting straight A's, socially adjusted, all that jazz, but he's fat. big deal.

But if it's a symptom of a larger problem like he's being molested, uses drugs and blows off school all the time...now we've got something going on.

[NateSean]

If a kid is four hundred pounds and that is not, in fact, an extreme statistic fabricated to make a point, then yeah. I'd say something is wrong there.

However, factors need to be considered before taking the child away from the parents. Are the parents, concerned for their child, taking proper action to address the problem? I mean, two hundred pounds at twelve should be pretty noticable, but past that if the parents haven't shown the slightest bit of concern, there should be at least an inquiry.

I mean, maybe the kid suffers from a glandular disorder that prevents him from knowing when he's full. I read something about it in high school but I don't know if it's even being considered now.

If the weight problem is not pathological then yeah, something has to be done. But I also agree that this is yet another loophole that can be horribly abused.

Who is to say that where the child winds up will be better than he is with his parents? And what if the weight problems persist? What programs are going to be available to him in his foster care situation that weren't available to him with his own parents?

Maybe toning down the law and saying, "If your child is dangerously over weight, the school nurse and the child's doctor can employ an enforced dietary plan. If the parents are willing to work with professionals to ensure the child returns to a healthy weight, no problem. If they are shown not to have any interest in this process, then the child must be temporarily removed from custody until he is at a minimum safe weight and the parents have taken an course educating them on the dangers of morbid obesity."

If the child's health is kept in mind, as opposed to this being another tax siphon for CPS, it could be very beneficial.

[DGoddess]

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."

We went outside to play when I was growing up too . . . if it got too hot, we came in for a short bit to eat, rest a bit and then we came back out.

But then that was when I didn't have to help with housework, either. By the time I was in my teens, I was pretty much having to take care of the house b/c Mom was either working or recovering from a car wreck and Grandma had mobility issues and couldn't get around very well.

But my brother sure would get outside . . . which of course meant I had to keep an eye on him to make sure the other kids didn't harass him (we had some mean ass kids in our neighborhood who didn't think twice of picking on a smaller kid, especially those who have special needs.)

We rode bikes, my brother also skated (which I could never get the hang of) or I'd go walking with Mom and Butt around the block (this was when Mom was relearning to walk and she was using a walker) late in the evening after the sun would start going down and it wasn't so hot outside.

By high school I was pretty much a hermit hiding in my room either listening to music, writing on a story (or both) or doing housework when not in school though. . . .

So who's to blame when the kids get overweight? It's not an easy question and there aren't any easy answers for it. I've heard of extreme cases where toddlers would reach well over 100 lbs and even then it's hard to say if there's an underlying cause for that or if it's mainly the parents who don't say "no" to the junk food.

Perhaps that should be handled on a case by case basis. It seems to be the best option I can think of IMO.

[PepperElf]

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.

same here.

as for the "no time to cook" excuse ... you can buy a crock pot for as little as 20-30 bucks. the real question is whether or not you WANT to make the time to be healthy.

the system has to be sure the parents know better,

I disagree about that. Neglect is neglect, and claiming "I didn't know better" to me is a copout. You can get FREE information and help for raising children - free clinics, libraries, the internet.... the real question is whether or not these parents actually tried learning.

and to me if any parent wants to use the "i didn't know better" excuse... that means they're declaring themselves incapable of raising a child, which means their children get taken away from them.

[Glados]

I agree that children should not be left in dangerous environments just because the parents didn't know better. However, the goal in these cases is to keep families together if at all possible. What I meant by that is CPS will need to determine if the parents had access to the proper information in the past. There are tons of resources available to parents and many of them are free but it is surprising how many parents do not know of these services.

[jackfaire]

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.

I am trying not to comment on too many of these that are kind of old but I can speak directly to this one. Dinner in my home was always later than usual growing up because my dad was a student and held a job and my mom worked 2 jobs as well all so that we could eventually move out of a shitty neighborhood where drug dealing was the career choice of the future.

So not only were they working hard enough just to feed us and clothe us they were working doubly hard to get educations. That being said my parents still sat down with us for dinner every night. It was good home cooked meals that at the time fell in the food pyramid and was considered healthy.

All of us were active and my parents were often encouraging us to be as active physically as we were mentally. My dad would encourage me to explore the neighborhood on my bike. That being said none of us kids were ever overweight. I am now but that has more to do with my sitting at a desk 8 hours a day.

So yes if a kid is 400 lbs it is child abuse and yes they need to be rescued.