Obese Children Maybe Taken From Home

[Daisalana 33]

The Courier: Taking you to the heart of Tayside and Fife

Obese children ‘may be put in care’A DUNDEE couple yesterday claimed their six children will be taken from them and placed in care unless they can bring their weight under control within three months.

Social workers are understood to be ready to take action to safeguard the health of the children, three of whom are considerably overweight.

Their parents have been told to send the children, the oldest of whom is 12, to dance and football lessons to shed pounds—or risk losing them.

Causing social workers most concern is the weight of the 12-year-old child, who is more than 16 stone, and another three-year-old child who weighs four stone.

The family claim the slimming deadline was set at a meeting with child protection officers last Thursday.

They say they were warned that all six children could be taken into care unless significant improvements are seen by June.

Social workers have allegedly even labelled the 21-month-old child, who weighs 26lbs, overweight.

However, the parents are adamant that their children are only displaying puppy fat and believe it will be shed as they grow older.

Their solicitor, Kathleen Price, has also raised the spectre of another Dundee family having a child taken away because of a weight problem.

Of the six children, she said, “I believe obesity is the main driving force in this case. This family is not alone.”

A spokesman for Dundee City Council said they were not able to comment on individual child protection issues.

The city council’s social work convener, Councillor Helen Wright, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

[VegasGrace 1]

I've heard something similar to this.

Weird.

Heard this one story many years ago in California. A baby was gaining so much weight and fast and constantly cried for the bottle. The doctor asked the new mom what she was feeding the baby. "Canned milk", just like you said. What type of formula are you using, responded the doctor. Eagle Brand was the mom's answer.

That's my biggest regret with my children. They grew up on fast foods. I'm a single mom of three and being both Mother and Father...well, I had to let some things go...and cooking was the one thing that I had to let go.

Of course, now that I'm banded, my children have lost weight. Weird, huh? They are not dieting...I'm just not going thru drive thru 3x a day.

And, just a note, my oldest started college at 16, my middle started at 15 and my youngest of 13.... will start at 15/16, too.

So I must have done something right!

[Daisalana 33]

Yeah, I think about this in my family.. my mom was a bean pole, my dad was a BIG man.

All 3 of us kids were obese. I was the biggest. I know we ate fast food all the time. I still did before banding. I always thought it was normal.

However, my parents raised us well.. I couldn't imagine them having taken us from them. It would have seriously messed us up..

I am glad though, I don't eat fast food anymore unless I have to (1-2x a month).. so when I have kids, I won't be taking them to fast food. But what a horrible thing to worry about.. your kids weight, no longer a vanity but just to KEEP your kids.

[libra 13]

I know this may sound terrible, but I can sort of see both sides to this. It is a parent's responsibility to teach their child healthy eating habits, but I don't think it warrants removing a child from the home. Maybe they should order the entire family to nutrition and exercise classes. That would make more sense since it will teach the parents and children good habits.

Like everyone else here....I learned my poor habits from my parents. But I also learned so many positive wonderful things from them too.

[Marimaru 7]

If their weight really is out of control, I am not against this. I don't know how much kids are supposed to weigh at a certain age, so I can't speak to this family in particular, but I think that if you are lettings your kids be grossly overweight at a young age when you are supposed to be caring for them, it's either abuse or neglect, depending on the case.

[HarleyGirl 1]

I know this may sound terrible, but I can sort of see both sides to this. It is a parent's responsibility to teach their child healthy eating habits, but I don't think it warrants removing a child from the home. Maybe they should order the entire family to nutrition and exercise classes. That would make more sense since it will teach the parents and children good habits.

Like everyone else here....I learned my poor habits from my parents. But I also learned so many positive wonderful things from them too.

Absolutely....send the whole family to nutrition and exercise classes....but if the parents fail to comply....it would be no different than a parent that fails to comply with other training/counseling ordered in abuse cases.

Abuse takes on many different forms.....

[Wheetsin 714]

I think out of control weight with no intervention from the parents is a form of abuse. If nothing else, it's a medical issue that the parents are not seeking medical help for. Or the equuivalent to taking a child to the doctor, but never following through with a prescription. There is the occasional, very very rare medical reason for obesity. That's where I can see this getting sticky.

It's in the US too. 254 lb 7y/o may be taken from home. In the video she claims he eats scant meals, but if you look at her list, it's really the opposite. 4 eggs, cheese, ketchup and soda for Breakfast... for a 7 year old.

She may very well think that's normal. Hence one root of the issue.

[sfeiner 2]

I agree with the classes.....maybe even have a nutritionist come and clean out the cupboards and teach the family how to eat right.

[Michee 2]

A few years ago there was a case where 5 kids were removed from a family because the kids were grossly underweight. To me it's the same think, in both cases the parents were not taking responsibility to make sure the children were eating the correct amount of healthy nutritious foods. It is likely that in both families the children are undernourished

[Daisalana 33]

Well, I am on the fence with this. I think before they are taken away, instead of giving her a 3 month trial period to make some progress, they should educate her.

However, she makes the comment in the article that it's puppy weight that will go away.. which at those numbers, it clearly is NOT just 'puppy weight'. So she's in denial, which makes it extremely dangerous.

But again, in my situation all 3 of us kids were obese, and I'm sure it didn't help that we were fed fast food all the time.. but instead of being threatened to be taken away, someone could have offered counseling or nutrition classes. It would still be up to me to follow through, we had snack machines at school and ice creams in the lunch line..

----

Also dangerous, the one you posted wheet.

254lb 7 year old is outrageous... and she says she doesn't think she's doing something wrong. Something, obviously. At least this mom is open to the idea of getting help, not blaming it on puppy weight.

Edited March 24, 2008 by FairyFacade

[anonemouse 1]

Well, the CPS (or whatever it is there) may well be offering education/nutrition classes, in addition to the demand that the children show improvement in a certain period of time. We're just hearing the mother's side of things, since I would imagine that the agency can't legally talk about the case. What she heard may not have been what the agency's representative actually said. If they ARE offering counselling or classes or something, I agree with the agency's actions and demands. Those children are being put at risk, just as they would be if they were being fed too little instead of too much. If the parents refuse to see that, or if they refuse to change, those kids shouldn't stay with them.

[MrsFlipFlops 2]

Here's my concern: who's to say how overweight is TOO much? Is it overweight, obese, morbidly obese? Where is the line drawn? Because if parents get their kids taken away for being overweight, or even "obese" then we're going to have a real big foster care problem on our hands.

[ingyrob 1]

I think it is the cruellest thing to take children from parents who love them even if the parents are misguided. It seems to me that if you have not got your own parents to care for you, you do not stand much chance in the world today. You hear of so many children who have been in care and unspeakable things have happened to them from care homes and from foster parents.

I think the parents and children have to be closely monitored in this case. I am sure this would be cheaper in the long run than taking whole families into care.

[heartfire 4]

I would agree that some education of these parents and supervised shopping and cooking would be very helpful. I always hate the idea of taking kids away unless there is an immediate risk of sexual, bodily or mental injury occurring (or has been occurring).

As a side note on the youngest. My daughter is 22 months old and just over 25 lbs. She's only 50% of her weight-per-age class. She's eats well and is energetic and happy. Now, I don't know how small this other child is. My DD is on the short side (75%). I'm still giving her whole milk b/c she certainly doesn't need to watch her caloric intake at this point!

[Mom2_4 0]

Maybe instead of instantly blaming the mother, they need to check the child for some kind of metabolic disorder or other issue. There was something on Discovery Health not long ago about a kid who was so overweight and he had some kind of health issue that was causing it. I felt so bad for that family.

Being overweight myself, I am very vigilant about watching what my kids eat, I would never want them to have to go through what I have gone through for the past 10 years. I really hope these parents are able to make some changes for their kids sake.