"Step away from the candy and come with me, kid"

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An increasing proportion of US children are so severely obese as to be at immediate risk for life-threatening complications including type 2 diabetes. Some will become candidates for treatment at newly established pediatric surgical weight loss programs throughout the country. As an alternative approach, involvement of state protective services might be considered, including placement into foster care in carefully selected situations. Ultimately, government can reduce the need for such interventions through investments in the social infrastructure and policies to improve diet and promote physical activity among children.

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Severe obesity in children -- is that a form of child abuse? Should the state step in and save these kids from their parents?

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@joefromchicago,

joefromchicago wrote:

An increasing proportion of US children are so severely obese as to be at immediate risk for life-threatening complications including type 2 diabetes. Some will become candidates for treatment at newly established pediatric surgical weight loss programs throughout the country. As an alternative approach, involvement of state protective services might be considered, including placement into foster care in carefully selected situations. Ultimately, government can reduce the need for such interventions through investments in the social infrastructure and policies to improve diet and promote physical activity among children.

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Severe obesity in children -- is that a form of child abuse? Should the state step in and save these kids from their parents?

That can happen only by the most egregious USURPATION of ultra vires power.

Government was never granted power to interfere
with the citizens as u advocate.

INSTEAD of doing what u suggest,
let every citizen join in moving to curtail and strangle the domestic jurisdiction
of government, to the aggrandizement of our personal freedom!

David

2 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

David... you're so not looking at the big picture. If this current trend continues, a whole generation or two will be lost. Considering that we are globally competing against India and China who so far DON'T suffer this epidemic, we will fall farther behind in almost every aspect.

These next generations will become a major burden on our health care system. Prevention is needed now not later when it will most likely NOT work. Cheaper to fix it now then to let it cripple the entire economy at a later date.

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

David... you're so not looking at the big picture.

True.

tsarstepan wrote:

If this current trend continues, a whole generation or two will be lost.

That does not justify throwing our freedom in the garbage.

tsarstepan wrote:

Considering that we are globally competing against India and China who so far DON'T suffer this epidemic, we will fall farther behind in almost every aspect.

What is the ratio of fatties here : there ??????

tsarstepan wrote:

These next generations will become a major burden on our health care system. Prevention is needed now not later when it will most likely NOT work. Cheaper to fix it now then to let it cripple the entire economy at a later date.

not by usurpation

David

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Just the powerpoint show on this page, that shows how obesity has gone from 10% to almost 30% in the last 20 years is amazing.
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

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@joefromchicago,

When I first read about this the other day I thought it was one of the most outrageous things I'd ever come across. Foster care is traumatic for kids, even for kids with terribly abusive and downright dangerous parents.

But then I asked myself how I would feel about it if a parent were starving their kid. That's pretty darn abusive. Is this maybe just the flip side of that?

I think proving that the parent's intent was to harm the child would be crucial in making the decision to remove them from the home.

Also, anyone who has looked at the school lunch program might be smart to not trust the state with nutrition education and obesity prevention .....

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

But then I asked myself how I would feel about it if a parent were starving their kid. That's pretty darn abusive. Is this maybe just the flip side of that?

Good point.

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It would be interesting to correlate the obesity in children trend with the expansion of 24 hour news services.

Fear created by the 24 hour news and the reporting of child abductions has created a nationwide appearance that walking, riding bicycles, playgrounds, public swimming pools, and basically any outdoor public places are luring places for child endangerment. Consequently, over protection has driven parents to assuming that kids playing in the family rooms in front of giant screen TV's or being driven to school or other group activities are safer.

The reality of this is that the long term consequence could be further from the truth. Most childhood fatalities result from traffic accidents and preventable health related repercussions than violence or abductions contrary to the appearance of the news--it's just that violence against children and abductions drive ratings (I would say 'sells newspapers' but few read them anymore).

As the old mot goes--no good deed goes unpunished.

Rap

T

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

joefromchicago wrote:

boomerang wrote:
But then I asked myself how I would feel about it if a parent were starving their kid. That's pretty darn abusive. Is this maybe just the flip side of that?
Good point.

Murder is already illegal WITHOUT usurpation.

David

0 Replies

@boomerang,

Wouldn't it make more sense to require the parents to attend nutriention classes or something like that. Removing a child from loving parents seems extreme and worse. This is assuming it is ignorance and not neglect - which I would guess is most situations I've seen personally with overweights kids is nothing to do with lack of love from the parents. It seems it is the opposite - they love their children and use food for reward or do not realize how bad some foods are. I've not seen this because a parent doesn't care for their child.

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

Wouldn't it make more sense to require the parents to attend
nutriention classes or something like that.

By WHAT AUTHORITY??????
No more free country ?????

David

2 Replies

@raprap,

Interesting correlation. Lately I have started to wonder if watching news is really a good thing, considering that they give people a distorted, skewed view of reality.

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@OmSigDAVID,

By the same authority that plans on taking the obese kids away from their parents.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I suppose by the same authority that we take kids away from any parent that presents a danger to their health.

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@Linkat,

I don't know, Linkat.

My inclination is that educating the family would be the right move but I know that food can't be a major issue in families too.

When Mo first came to live with us we had some pretty serious issues with him hoarding food by hiding it in his room. He was just two. We still have some "food issues" eight years later.

I can easily see a young child being completely confused by a parent making sudden and drastic changes in diet when the parent is threatened with having the kid taken away. I can see how it might cause some real damage to their relationship.

I'm not sure what the right answer is but I do think that taking a kid away from their family should always be a last resort. School is the obvious solution to addressing nutrition in an ongoing and meaningful way but any school that might suggest it would be accused of being a big bunch of liberal crybabies who want China to "beat" us at whatever we're so scared of being "beaten" at.

1 Reply

@boomerang,

We recently had something passed in MA about food (sugary stuff and high calories/fried stuff being eliminated) in public schools - so this appears to be generally accepted. For the present chocolate milk is staying though until they can determine how to encourage kids to drink regular milk.

Any way, I would imagine that a nutrutionist would encourage small changes rather than drastic ones. Also encouraging stuff that kids would like and be excepting of - I mean isn't the idea that the kids eat healthy - not eat nothing? If done correctly, wouldn't this work best for all?

The thought is to be healthy not cause eating disorders - one would hope that a medical person would have the understanding of how best to approach this change in behavor.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

I don't think it's that easy.

My niece is a nutritionist at a very fancy private hospital. She meets with every single patient and, after reviewing all of their medical records, gives them a comprehensive diet plan. These are people whose LIVES often depend on them making changes and they still don't change.

Food is a complicated subject.

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@boomerang,

I'm not suggesting it is easy - I am just stating there has to be an alternative than removing children from loving parents. This was one suggestion. It would seem more harmful (and expensive) to move a child from a loving parent than to seek some sort of help on nutrition and perhaps overall health education.

My daughters play sports with all sorts of girls - many even though they play are very overweight. Some of these girls can barely run. They can hit the heck outta the ball, but they run slower than David Oritz. I walk faster than they run. Get the idea. But I know these parents and they love and adore their children. How the heck to help these kids?

1 Reply

@boomerang,

Yeah, definitely.

And there's more and more stuff coming out about the biological baseline differences -- as in, person A might have a physical makeup that makes it much easier to gain weight than person B, even if their environment is exactly the same. (What they eat, how much of it, how much exercise they get, etc.)

Still love Atul Gawande's line, "We are a species that has evolved to survive starvation, not to resist abundance."

3 Replies

@sozobe,

Good points - one of the girls I mentioned above that can't run, her sister a year difference is age, is a complete different body build. She isn't slim, but she isn't overweight either.

0 Replies

"Step away from the candy and come with me, kid"

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