Obese Third Grader Taken From Parents.....

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

http://news.yahoo.com/obese-third-grader-taken-mom-placed-foster-care-201731761.html

A Cleveland third grader who weighed more than 200 pounds was taken from his mother after officials reportedly said she did not do enough to help the boy, who suffered from a weight-related health issue, to lose weight.

“They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don’t love my child,” the boy’s mother, who was not identified, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It’s a lifestyle change and they are trying to make it seem like I am not embracing that. It is very hard, but I am trying.”

Officials first became aware of the boy’s weight after his mother took him to the hospital last year while he was having breathing problems, the newspaper reported. The child was diagnosed with sleep apnea and began to be monitored by social workers while he was enrolled in a program called “Healthy Kids, Healthy Weight” at the Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

The boy lost a few pounds, but recently began to gain some back, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. At that point, the Department of Children and Family Services asked a juvenile court for custody of the boy, citing his soaring weight as a form of medical neglect, according to the newspaper.

I have a hard time with this because I think there are children out there whose parents are abusing them in so many ways, however, I also see this as a type of abuse as well.  Having had the opposite problem with my boys (they were always underweight for their height/age according to the charts).  Yet I never once had a fear that anyone would take them from me as otherwise they were perfectly healthy.  Now, they are both almost 6' and still thin but it's not a health concern, they are both extremely active.

The Dr told me Joy was overweight on her last check up.  The Dr suggested a "food diary" which we kept religiously for a month.  Then Joy and I sat down and took a good look at it.  I stopped buying as much junk food snacks for their lunches and after school snacks and we started making an extra effort for all of us to eat healthier with our snacks and the lunches I pack for them, which was the only thing we could find unhealthy in the diary.  Joy has lost 10 pounds, feels a hundred times better and she and I are walking and excercising together.  In the end though, I blame the loss of physical education classes in middle school as much as I do my bad snack choices.

When the schools serve pizza, french fries and peaches in heavy syrup as a well balanced lunch, there is a problem.  However, as a parent, I feel it is ultimately my responsibility that I make sure my child's health, not limited to but including their weight, is healthy and where they should be for their height and age.

[Freeky Queen of DERP]

Wow.  I just... wow.

[trippinprincezz13]

Wow, that's....sad.

Not very insightful, I know, but not sure how I feel about it. The story doesn't say much about what the mother/child/doctors were doing (or not) to improve the situation. Were they sneaking snacks at school, from friends? I know they said the child was put on a special program - I assume maybe being given special lunches? Or just eating school lunches (since, as Khara mentioned, a "well-balanced" meal from the school isn't always so). I agree in cases of abuse or extreme neglect the State should step in, at least to an extent. Without actually being there, who knows what the mother and/or child were doing to help or hurt the situation. Not that I want to advocate constant surveillance of families - don't want to open that can of worms. Opens it up to a whole slippery slope of what's "good for the children" - too much TV? Too violent games? Too much/not enough religion? Though physical health I suppose is a slightly more easily distinguishable problem.

Where's the line between abuse/neglect and maybe not that great of parent/doing the best they can and still struggling?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Well, if they start doing this shit, they're never going to be able to take a lunch break.

Just saying.

[Cainad]

Well, if they start doing this shit, they're never going to be able to take a lunch break.

Just saying.

I was just think about that. How slippery is this slope?

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Oh it is quite slippery and I'm not saying I agree with removing the child from the school, however, I do think the parents should be ashamed of themselves. 

They are setting their child up for a lifetime of health issues, social issues and self esteem issues.  Fat kids are picked on, it isn't pretty and it isn't nice.

They are the adults, it is their job to raise the healthiest child they can.  The mom complains about "lifestyle changes", yeah it's a lifestyle change, but this change is most likely going to save your kids life.

Does she want to watch Dr. Phil pull this kid out of the basement in 15 years with a freaking backhoe because he weighs 800 pounds? 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh it is quite slippery and I'm not saying I agree with removing the child from the school, however, I do think the parents should be ashamed of themselves. 

They are setting their child up for a lifetime of health issues, social issues and self esteem issues.  Fat kids are picked on, it isn't pretty and it isn't nice.

They are the adults, it is their job to raise the healthiest child they can.  The mom complains about "lifestyle changes", yeah it's a lifestyle change, but this change is most likely going to save your kids life.

Does she want to watch Dr. Phil pull this kid out of the basement in 15 years with a freaking backhoe because he weighs 800 pounds? 

On the other hand, do we want the state looking over our shoulder while we're raising our kids?  Do we want to give them that kind of power because the media aw shucks at some fat kid?

Stupid shit/manufactured outrage/managed reaction/actual goal accomplished.

[ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S.]

Oh it is quite slippery and I'm not saying I agree with removing the child from the school, however, I do think the parents should be ashamed of themselves. 

They are setting their child up for a lifetime of health issues, social issues and self esteem issues.  Fat kids are picked on, it isn't pretty and it isn't nice.

They are the adults, it is their job to raise the healthiest child they can.  The mom complains about "lifestyle changes", yeah it's a lifestyle change, but this change is most likely going to save your kids life.

Does she want to watch Dr. Phil pull this kid out of the basement in 15 years with a freaking backhoe because he weighs 800 pounds? 

On the other hand, do we want the state looking over our shoulder while we're raising our kids?  Do we want to give them that kind of power because the media aw shucks at some fat kid?

Stupid shit/manufactured outrage/managed reaction/actual goal accomplished.

So, on one hand we want to keep the health of a child in mind, and on the other hand, retaining the privacy and parenting authority of a child's parents is also important. This is tricky.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

And the problem arises with those parents who either don't give a flying fuck because they weigh 300 pounds themselves, think thier baby will grow out of the "baby fat" or just refuse to change their own eating habits to help the child, not to mention themselves.

Do I want the state or the fed governing my child's weight?  OH HELL NO.  I never said I agreed with the child being taken away. 

Maybe something along the lines of when a pediatrician sees this, they are mandated to report it to (no clue who, just kind of thinking out loud) who then arranges for the parents to sit down with a dietician to make a monthly meal plan?  If the child does not improve within a year of that happening, non felony child endangerment charges?  Then again you have the state getting involved. 

I just can't comprehend this. If my child were having weight related health issues at 9 (because sleep apnea has been directly linked with severe obesity) then not doing something to correct that is my bad parenting.

There are no winners in parents who do not put the health of their child before their own selfishness

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh it is quite slippery and I'm not saying I agree with removing the child from the school, however, I do think the parents should be ashamed of themselves. 

They are setting their child up for a lifetime of health issues, social issues and self esteem issues.  Fat kids are picked on, it isn't pretty and it isn't nice.

They are the adults, it is their job to raise the healthiest child they can.  The mom complains about "lifestyle changes", yeah it's a lifestyle change, but this change is most likely going to save your kids life.

Does she want to watch Dr. Phil pull this kid out of the basement in 15 years with a freaking backhoe because he weighs 800 pounds? 

On the other hand, do we want the state looking over our shoulder while we're raising our kids?  Do we want to give them that kind of power because the media aw shucks at some fat kid?

Stupid shit/manufactured outrage/managed reaction/actual goal accomplished.

So, on one hand we want to keep the health of a child in mind, and on the other hand, retaining the privacy and parenting authority of a child's parents is also important. This is tricky.

I reject the notion that we have to keep the kid's weight in mind.  There's not much wiggle room between "beating the mortal shit out of the kid" and "Creating a desperately unhappy land whale that will never kiss a girl", but we have to draw the line somewhere.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Do I want the state or the fed governing my child's weight?  OH HELL NO.  I never said I agreed with the child being taken away. 

My bad.

[ZL 'Kai' Burington, M.S.]

Oh it is quite slippery and I'm not saying I agree with removing the child from the school, however, I do think the parents should be ashamed of themselves. 

They are setting their child up for a lifetime of health issues, social issues and self esteem issues.  Fat kids are picked on, it isn't pretty and it isn't nice.

They are the adults, it is their job to raise the healthiest child they can.  The mom complains about "lifestyle changes", yeah it's a lifestyle change, but this change is most likely going to save your kids life.

Does she want to watch Dr. Phil pull this kid out of the basement in 15 years with a freaking backhoe because he weighs 800 pounds? 

On the other hand, do we want the state looking over our shoulder while we're raising our kids?  Do we want to give them that kind of power because the media aw shucks at some fat kid?

Stupid shit/manufactured outrage/managed reaction/actual goal accomplished.

So, on one hand we want to keep the health of a child in mind, and on the other hand, retaining the privacy and parenting authority of a child's parents is also important. This is tricky.

I reject the notion that we have to keep the kid's weight in mind.  There's not much wiggle room between "beating the mortal shit out of the kid" and "Creating a desperately unhappy land whale that will never kiss a girl", but we have to draw the line somewhere.

So, what would qualify for neglect, then? Aside the obvious sexual/physical assault. For example, if we intervene when a child is starving, should we not also intervene when a parent's diet choices is causing the children life threatening health problems?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So, what would qualify for neglect, then? Aside the obvious sexual/physical assault. For example, if we intervene when a child is starving, should we not also intervene when a parent's diet choices is causing the children life threatening health problems?

No, I think beyond assault or deprivation, the state shouldn't have much to say.  The state is a stupid beast, even when it means well, and the more power you give it to intrude on the family, the worse off your culture is.  I'm not trying to sound like some Libertarian fuckbat here, I'm just saying that "scope creep" is a fact of bureaucracy.  It won't stop with fat kids, Kai.  It never stops, unless you stop it.

[M. Nigel Salt]

Wow, I am very torn.

It reminds me of the cases recently where people were convicted and imprisoned for not getting medical help for their children because it was against their religion.

Slippery slope, yes. But I am torn. My eight-year-old weighs about 60 pounds. 200 lbs on an 8 year old is insane, and the child has a life-threatening medical problem as a result of his severe obesity. At what point should an agency try to intervene? Where do they draw the line? It seems like the medical condition is where they drew the line, and I think that may be a valid place for it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Wow, I am very torn.

It reminds me of the cases recently where people were convicted and imprisoned for not getting medical help for their children because it was against their religion.

Slippery slope, yes. But I am torn. My eight-year-old weighs about 60 pounds. 200 lbs on an 8 year old is insane, and the child has a life-threatening medical problem as a result of his severe obesity. At what point should an agency try to intervene? Where do they draw the line? It seems like the medical condition is where they drew the line, and I think that may be a valid place for it.

Yeah, I see your point, but it makes me really uncomfortable.