Obese Third Grader Taken From Parents.....

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

People change a lifetime of habits on a short period all the fucking time. Just as an aside. It's not, in fact, fucking hard at all if you actually try to do it instead of pretending it will take care of itself if you wait long enough. A whole year. Do you think they had no warning? CPS wasn't even called in until the kid gained back all the weight he'd lost and then some. The parents weren't even fucking trying. Are we going to put a live-in dietician in every fat family's home?

LOTS of changes need to be made to our society to cure its problems. Taking kids away from their families isn't the ultimate answer, at all. But your suggestions are fucking retarded.

[Luna]

Okay...  Digging deeper.

Kid is eight years old, and weighs over 200 lbs.  (Average weight for an 8 year old is 57.2 lbs.  I had to look it up.) 

Cuyahoga County does not have a specific policy on dealing with obese children. It removed the boy because case workers considered this mother's inability to get her son's weight down a form of medical neglect, said Mary Louise Madigan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Family Services.

They said that the child's weight gain was caused by his environment and that the mother wasn't following doctor's orders -- which she disputes.

"This child's problem was so severe that we had to take custody," Madigan said. The agency worked with the mother for more than a year before asking Juvenile Court for custody of the child, she said.

There's a trial set for next month. 

The more in-depth article is here:

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/11/obese_cleveland_heights_child.html

[Roly Poly Oly-Garch]

I am very, very far from being a Libertarian, but you seem to be saying that if people won't make the changes that they are told they must make, shown how to make, and then given a year of continuing guidance in making, that when they fail to make those changes AT ALL, the government should then send in a team to live in fat people's homes and make sure they eat right and exercise?

I'm sorry. But wow.

I totally missed that they had done the guidance for a year beyond the 12 week course. Re-read...fixed. Sans that, though, yeah. If it's worth pulling a kid out of the home, when that home's not otherwise ... and such ... then it's gotta be worth some pretty extreme measures to keep them in the home. When to say when, though? Glad that's not my call.

Honestly when I at first just read the posts about this, I was full blown expecting to read quotes by the Mom straight out of Precious, or something. That's the only way I could get my brain around someone not being able to keep their 3rd grader under 200lbs after having been confronted with doctors, and protective services, etc. I don't fully understand stupid without the retard filling, I guess.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

http://www.uhhospitals.org/rainbowchildren/ourservices/divisionofendocrinologymetabolism/tabid/466/healthykidshealthyweight.aspx

Here's the low-down on the program they put the kid in. I like that it addresses the entire family and gives them access to dietitians and exercise specialists. I think it would be more effective if the core program lasted longer than 12 weeks.

My brother's heart blew up when he was a kid. He got a pacemaker and a defibrillator when he was around 18. He was so massive and overweight, 6'0'' and 400+ lbs that his heart couldn't take it. He couldn't sleep, couldn't breathe well, and couldn't get around too great.

No one seemed to really care about him or his issues, or what was going on in our home. They just went through the motions and shoved him off their caseload as fast as possible.

Same thing happened with my other brother, in a different circumstance. And me.

I don't think the programs work. I don't think the people being paid to do this shit actually care about what they're doing. But that's my experience. And you can keep saying I didn't read the article all you want.

But, in my opinion, taking a kid out of his comfort zone when this big scary shit happens is not going to help. And a 12 week program is only the start of what this kid needs.

Just my opinion. You can take it or leave it as you please.

Sometimes comfort zones are not what we need to be healthy or to survive.  Comfort zones are often what get us locked up, hospitalized and on the fastrack to getting dead, just saying.  That alone is not reason enough to not intervene if necessary.

Your experiences seem to color the effectiveness of this sort of shit, so I'll leave you alone on those.  Your interaction with these types of individuals seems to have tempered where you come from in your estimation of the efficacy for others.  I totally get that, and see it often in other avenues that are just as touchy.

Be that as it may, I still see no overstepping by these guys, not if their first set up was to give him a program to follow.  Also--which is it, the people/programs don't work, or they need to go on longer?  You are confusing me with your points.

I think the whole family needs intensive work on the long term. Like, a year or more. And nutrition education, how to shop and cook healthy, etc.

But I'm not sure where it should end. I mean, at some point it would be the state raising the entire family, not just taking the kid and trying to get him squared away. And that's if the programs are worth anything.

You have a point in that the comfort zone sometimes enables the very problem that needs correcting. That whole break the cycle thing. It just seems like a lot to stack on a 9 year old's plate.

I will be interested in seeing how this story progresses.

[Jenne]

I'd also like to posit that whole family intervention is not an easy avenue nor is it always feasible, either.  Consider the resources it takes to do that.  Consider how inadequate most of our public works programs are.  Now apply that to cases like these.  How many families would the state be "raising" now?  You want to talk about overstepping boundaries...there you go.

As always, I go back to my usual bailiwick:  EDUFUCKINGCATION.  If we had a better system, it would reach the families in a more equal way such that this sort of seive wasn't necessary as often.  If people LEARNED at school and then had it reinforced at home what is good for them, what biology has taught us about fat, sugar, and exercise...then this problem would go a long way to being prevented.

[P3nT4gR4m]

There's no avoiding it some people are just fat lazy fucks. They tend to breed fat lazy fuck kids and then occasionally one of their kids will be slim and fit and they'll hassle it incessantly for being too skinny. Thing is, it's a choice. Do you want to be fit and healthy and enter the "long active life, if you don't happen to get hit by a bus" - lottery or do you want 30-40 years of sitting on a sofa, stuffing your face full of pop tarts and twinkies, watching soul destroying game shows before your heart finally gives up trying to pump solid lard through your arteries?

There aint a right and wrong answer but if you choose option-b don't expect me to sympathise with your "big-boned" bullshit, cos I won't. You're a fat lazy fuck and you'll probably die a long time before I do. Enjoy that twinkie, lardass! I agree with educating the kids, tho. Tell them - you're a fat lazy fuck, your mom and dad are fat lazy fucks, so don't listen to those assholes if you want to get healthy, eat less lard, do some exercise and don't worry about getting in trouble with the parents - you'll kick those fat lazy fuck's asses with one hand tied behind your back, that's the beauty of fitness.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I actually think it's tragic that they stopped teaching home ec in high school.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I actually think it's tragic that they stopped teaching home ec in high school.

We took it in 7th grade.

But that was actually more like "kitchen hygiene:  How not to poison yourself while preparing food."

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I actually think it's tragic that they stopped teaching home ec in high school.

We took it in 7th grade.

But that was actually more like "kitchen hygiene:  How not to poison yourself while preparing food."

The idea that you are expected to be able to prepare food at all has gone out the window. Cooking from scratch? How do?

[Cain]

I did cooking at school 

I still have a burn mark on my right wrist from it, actually.  It's hard to see now, with the hair covering it, but that was painful as fuck.  We did scotch eggs, pizza and, uh, other entirely unhealthy foods where the chances of someone getting set on fire were quite high, now I think about it...

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I actually think it's tragic that they stopped teaching home ec in high school.

We took it in 7th grade.

But that was actually more like "kitchen hygiene:  How not to poison yourself while preparing food."

The idea that you are expected to be able to prepare food at all has gone out the window. Cooking from scratch? How do?

Alty is a prime example of why this shit should still be taught.

If food is bad, or even MIGHT be bad, you throw it the fuck away.

I think I got more out of that class than any other class I took in junior high school.

[LMNO]

Sometimes I am amazed at the contrast between the relative popularity of cooking shows/competitions, and the absolute inability the general public has when it comes to preparing food.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sometimes I am amazed at the contrast between the relative popularity of cooking shows/competitions, and the absolute inability the general public has when it comes to preparing food.

Seriously. Even just the basics.

I don't think cooking shows really help with that; people end up with the impression that cooking from scratch is this sophisticated and complex alchemy unattainable to the common man, when honestly, where they need to start is with simple things like "rice" and "fried egg".

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Eh, I have forced all of my children to help me in the kitchen from the time they were old enough to stir.  

My kids can cook, and not just microwave pizza and shit, I mean real food from scratch.

I grew up basically living in our kitchen, it was the heart of the house and where everyone usually was, sitting around the table.  It was nothing to come home and find my grandmother starting dinner and bowls set on the table for us kids to help with, either shelling peas or peeling potatos, snapping beans.  In retrospect, I grew up eating healthy, mainly because we grew our own vegetables and raised our own meat.

I know it's easy to put the blame on our education system but seriously, isn't it our responsibility as parents to make sure our kids eat healthy?  Isn't it our job to make sure they have the basic household skills to survive?

My first husband was a mommy's boy, couldn't even boil water.  I decided then, any child I had, male or female would leave my home with the ability to be self sufficient.  

I don't know, maybe it's not the "right" way or the "best" way to raise them, but you know, they aren't obese, they all are active in sports and in excellent health.  AND they can cook, do laundry, clean a bathtub, mop a floor and so forth.  It works for me.

[Jenne]

Self-sufficiency is seen as a luxury these days.  Everyone hires out.  Need to iron?  Why bother--take it to the dry cleaners.  No time to cook?  Take out or drive thru on your way home.  Plan the meals? Fuck no, just drop by willy nilly at the store when you need something.  Whatever lands in the basket, lands.

I'm hoping my kids won't be total assmunches when they get to college and learn to eat more than ramen and pizza...we've taught them to make eggs, fry meat, chop veggies...boil pasta and make rice...I'm hopeful those skills will come in handy when we're no longer living with them day to day.