Put into care for being fat.

[melons]

I've not seen it mentioned on here but i'm totally horrified by this, i've tried to look around to see if this was just one of the factors or considered the main factor. I remember a kid from Sunderland being removed from care for the reasons but didn't it's parents refuse to engage with social services ect? It's a sad state that this is even being placed on records as valid grounds for removing the child from it's parents. Surely they're risking even greater long lasting adverse effects then what they would leaving them there and engaging more?

 

Council 'put child, 5, into care for being obese' - Telegraph

 

The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, reportedly had a body mass index of 22.6, which is considered clinically obese for such an age.

 

They are understood to weigh around 4 stone 4lb, which medical experts said was about a stone and a half more than the average weight for a similar-aged child.

 

Social services from Tameside council, Greater Manchester, decided that the child’s parents, who also cannot be identified, had failed to bring their weight under control.

 

They are the second young person the local authority has placed into care for being overweight.

 

A teenager, who also cannot be named, was found to have had a BMI of 30.3, which is the equivalent of about 13 stone, which is five stone more

than average.

 

The disclosures came from requests, made under the Freedom of Information Act, that were sent to all local authorities in Britain.

 

Councils were asked for information on how many children over the past financial year, have been taken into care, in which obesity was cited as a contributing factor.

 

The survey, by the Daily Mail, found another child was removed by Sunderland council, but officials refused to provide details of their age or weight, claiming it would breach data protection laws.

 

The majority of councils responded by saying that general neglect was the main reason for initiating care proceedings.

 

During 2009/10, four children were taken into care due to obesity reasons.

 

This included three from the London borough of Lewisham aged three, ten and 15, and an 11 year-old from Northumberland.

 

In September this year, social workers in Dundee provoked anger by removing four obese children from their parents.

 

Three girls aged 11, seven and one and a boy of five were placed into care to be “fostered without contact” or adopted.

 

The first reported case came in 2007 when an eight-year-old girl from West Cumbria was taken into care for weighing ten stone. Official figures show that one in every 10 children will be obese when starting school.

 

Meanwhile separate government statistics show that more than 60 per cent of adults in England and a third of 10 and 11-year-olds are obese.

 

In August The Lancet medical journal said that by 2030 more than 11m would classed as obese, with a body mass index (BMI) above 30, compared with a healthy BMI score of between 18.5 and 25.

 

Obesity and chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes cost Britain £20 billion a year in terms of lost productivity, it was claimed last month.

 

A spokesman for the National Obesity Forum said it supported placing obese children into care but only as a last resort and only after all efforts had been made to reduce their weight.

 

“We sincerely hope that such occasions would be rare … but make the point that this would be the automatic response to a child at the other extreme – severe malnutrition,” they said.

 

A spokesman for Tameside Council told the Daily Mail: “The point at which obesity turns into a child-protection issue is a complex and difficult area, and in these two cases there were other determining factors that led to the children being placed in local authority care.

 

“Parents should be supported to address their child’s obesity, and social workers should only act if parents fail to engage with the proposed plan to improve their child’s safety and wellbeing.”

 

David Simmonds, a member of Local Government Association’s (LGA) children and young people board, also told the paper: “Social workers use their professional judgment about how best to keep children from harm.”

 

 

On a side note, i had a social worker visit last week due to 'concerns over my daughters weight gain', She's put on 20kg in the last 18 months. I politely told her to get to fuck. My daughter is on huge doses (60mg prednisone and has been for most of the last 6 months and intermittently before then) of steroids as a result of optic neurits, every time she comes off or weans down she loses her sight. As i said to this jobs worth, i'd rather her deal with weight issues then have her dealing with being blind, this way she has some balance of normal life. That and as i also said, if i was refusing to have her treated by conventional medicine as the consultants recommend you'd be on my back for neglect for that...

[Elmyn Noos]

Parents who allow their children to become obese through bad diet and lack of exercise are seriously neglecting their children and should have their kids taken off them if they ignore warnings and advice. Fat equals ugly and unhealthy - there's no excuse for it.

[melons]

Can we stretch that to parents that grow ginger beards too? That's surely got to place some kind of psychological abuse upon the child?

[Elmyn Noos]

Can we stretch that to parents that grow ginger beards too? That's surely got to place some kind of psychological abuse upon the child?

 

No. Ginger beards are a sign of immense virility. Parents with ginger beards should be worshipped in temples and given virgins to break in.

[Pony Princess]

Council could install a treadmill powered xbox. Issue solved. "wanna play xbox fat tits? Then get on the treadmill. lose some weight and daddy might come back"

[melons]

Council could install a treadmill powered xbox. Issue solved. "wanna play xbox fat tits? Then get on the treadmill. lose some weight and daddy might come back"

 

We went to a festival last summer, the kids were all given fruit smoothies but to earn them they had to do 3 minutes on an exercise bike to blend it. Kept mine happy and it saved me £6 on a bottles of water each time.

[Dwayne Pipes]

I live 3 miles from the nearest shop and have to walk there and back every day. I can eat what I want and stay slim. A fat child would benefit from this type of exercise as long as their calorie intake is not more than the calories they have burned off. That wouldn't help in any way.

[Jim MM]

It's for the best, at least now the kid will get eight square meals a day.

[Paulie Dangerously]

Barring any medical condition parents shouldn't allow their kids to be obese. It's about educating the fatties. I also think there's an argument to tax fatter foods and subsadise the healthier ones.

 

If a food ignorant person can get a huge sized pizza and a bag of chips for £2 which feed a family of 5 why would they buy ingredients to make a healthy alternative?

[Chairman Meow]

Yet the smackhead who lives down the road from me still has her 3 kids living with it.

[Jairzinho]

Yet the smackhead who lives down the road from me still has her 3 kids living with it.

 

Probably quite thin though, right?

[Chairman Meow]

 

Probably quite thin though, right?

 

She is, the kids aren't though.

 

Some right pond life on our estate who shouldn't be allowed to have kids anywhere near them.

[VladimirIlyich]

I was reading the article with interest until i came across the words 'daily' and 'mail' and then stopped reading it.

[melons]

I was reading the article with interest until i came across the words 'daily' and 'mail' and then stopped reading it.

 

I initially read it in the daily mail, well my lecturer who pointed it out had us reading it then i went to try and dig out some more stuff on it. It's not only in the UK this is happening. Given the family/child court system here even is incredibly closed so what if it's the daily fail that brings it up, it still needs highlighting; it's setting a worrying possibility for future cases.

[Chocoholic]

 

Even if the kid did this all day and night, the shit his parents are allowing him eat is still going to win. A person's shape and health are determined far more by what they eat, rather than what exercise they do.

 

But getting back to the original story... at what point are the authorities going to say the child can go back to the family home?

 

How is the child going to cope with the trauma of being taken away from their parents? As mentioned above, which causes more damage to the child's wellbeing?

 

Who will bear the responsibility of properly feeding and nourishing the child? Will it be some crackpot do-gooder who thinks they know because they're doing what they've always done before but never questioned why, or someone who actually does know what they're talking about when it comes to nutrition?

 

Will they be successful in attempting to re-educate the child with regard to food choices? It's more a case of getting the child into a state where they're not craving the things they know as their comfort foods. These will probably include a never ending supply of sugary drinks, crisps/cornsnacks, fast food takeaway and their home microwaved equivalents.

 

 

But, again, I stress, the children are dependent on the adults to provide for them and they just take whatever they know for granted, because they know no better.

 

 

So-called diet/low calorie versions of drinks are just as bad as their sugar filled varieties... they just have a different chemical compound that 'sweetens' the drink and causes other side-effects and problems. Maybe in very low consumption these won't cause any undue harm, but in the amounts some drink them, it's always going to cause problems.

 

Who will re-educate the parents? Because there's little point in getting the child to eat better if the parents are not singing from the same hymn sheet. With the best will in the world, the child may love to eat new and healthy things they've never tasted before, but unless they're given to them by the parents who actually buy the weekly shopping, there's an immediate falldown.

 

 

A child is not going to know anything other than what they're always given, so it's not their fault for wanting what's bad for them. To a large degree it's laziness on the parents' part, but it's also a case of being ignorant with regard to education about food contents and what certain foods do to the body that just perpetuate the horrific spiral. That obviously goes for what children and adults eat. But if a parent can't be arsed to find out what shit they're feeding to their children, what can they expect?

 

The food companies, the vast majority of which are multinationals, selling their products in heavily processed packages thrive on ignorance of their products. They continue to create and produce things that appeal to the eye and the palate, but which the rest of our bodies reject. Their only concern is their own profit, not your nutrition and wellbeing. Surprise! That's your own responsibility!

 

In what could be an ironic reverse of the story above, there's a case for saying my brother and his wife could be taken into care for being obese while their children are, as yet, still normal size and weight for their ages. Their eldest, who is now 10, has been sent to a dietician on the order of her doctor as she takes on more weight. It has been said within the family that the wrong family members are going to the dietician! They don't hold back in their hypocritical scolding of her for eating something she shouldn't, while thinking nothing of indulging themselves as they do it.

 

And breathe!

[Unrighteous]

Can we stretch that to parents that grow ginger beards too? That's surely got to place some kind of psychological abuse upon the child?

 

I'm not having that.

 

As for Dohnut's post, Dohnuts is correct.

 

Fatness is more about diet than exercise. Specifically, in Children, it'll be portion size as well. An adult sized meal, as their diet, for a child, of healthy food, is still going to make them fat as fuck.

[Ginny]

Theres only 1 thing worse than seeing a fat person eating burger and chips... and that is a fat person taking their kids in to McDonalds to eat burger and chips.

[AVEEZ]

I cant help but think that parents that allow their kids, at this age, to get so over weight, are committing some form of child abuse...

 

Ignorance is not an excuse for poor parenting in my opinion, too many parents get away with dragging their kids up and when it is questioned the response is 'they didn't know any better'...

 

I don't know how to tackle this, but I'd be inclined to make parents like these, attend parenting classes, which would include dietary requirements.

 

I'd be willing to bet, that I spend more time looking after my dogs' health than some of these parents do their kids.

 

I really hate to see desperately fat kids - its no life for them, it leads to bullying at school, low self esteem and ultimately a sedentary life style which could kill them in later life.

[Elmyn Noos]

I cant help but think that parents that allow their kids, at this age, to get so over weight, are committing some form of child abuse...

 

Ignorance is not an excuse for poor parenting in my opinion, too many parents get away with dragging their kids up and when it is questioned the response is 'they didn't know any better'...

 

I don't know how to tackle this, but I'd be inclined to make parents like these, attend parenting classes, which would include dietary requirements.

 

I'd be willing to bet, that I spend more time looking after my dogs' health than some of these parents do their kids.

 

I really hate to see desperately fat kids - its no life for them, it leads to bullying at school, low self esteem and ultimately a sedentary life style which could kill them in later life.

 

I suppose there is always an upside. One of nature's many justices is that fat people die young.

[VladimirIlyich]

The one thing I will say in defence of a few of the parents is that when you are on a budget its very difficult to buy decent food.

 

All the shite food is the cheapest and being able to shell out on fresh food that needs replacing every couple of days is not really an option.

 

And if parents our out working all day to earn a living then spending ages in the kitchen is not a very enticing prospect.

 

A few incentives like vouchers for fresh fruit and veg and a few compulsory healthy eating courses wouldnt be a bad idea either.

[melons]

I'd like to agree on the healthy eating courses, but it's not so much people don't know what's healthy and what's not, it's about making them appetising enough for the kids to eat them. Most people learn how to cook from their parents, if they didn't learn how to make something appetising, they're unlikely to figure it out for their own kids.

 

 

 

I still burn rice at least 50% of the time i cook it. *shrugs*

[VladimirIlyich]

I'd like to agree on the healthy eating courses, but it's not so much people don't know what's healthy and what's not, it's about making them appetising enough for the kids to eat them. Most people learn how to cook from their parents, if they didn't learn how to make something appetising, they're unlikely to figure it out for their own kids.

 

 

 

I still burn rice at least 50% of the time i cook it. *shrugs*

 

Buy the microwave bags that take 3 minutes from asda.Cannot fail.

[Pony Princess]

The one thing I will say in defence of a few of the parents is that when you are on a budget its very difficult to buy decent food.

 

All the shite food is the cheapest and being able to shell out on fresh food that needs replacing every couple of days is not really an option.

 

And if parents our out working all day to earn a living then spending ages in the kitchen is not a very enticing prospect.

 

A few incentives like vouchers for fresh fruit and veg and a few compulsory healthy eating courses wouldnt be a bad idea either.

 

I agree the shite food is the cheapest - I go into Iceland once in a blue moon as they have this granary bread I like and I was seeing loads of mothers and kids buying up all Icelands fucking vile looking £1 for 10 beef burgers, £1 for 20 sausages, £1 for 20 KFC-style chicken wings. Fucking hell.

 

But I disagree with the implication that healthy food is expensive, if you are going to cook it yourself that is.

 

You can get a big bag of frozen brocolli, cauli etc for £1 in places like aldi and sainsburies which will last ages. A huge bag of lentils is about a £1 if you shop around and so on. Raw ingredients are generally cheap but you do have to be able to cook.

 

And as the old saying goes, if you can read, then you can cook.

[melons]

I agree the shite food is the cheapest - I go into Iceland once in a blue moon as they have this granary bread I like and I was seeing loads of mothers and kids buying up all Icelands fucking vile looking £1 for 10 beef burgers, £1 for 20 sausages, £1 for 20 KFC-style chicken wings. Fucking hell.

 

But I disagree with the implication that healthy food is expensive, if you are going to cook it yourself that is.

 

You can get a big bag of frozen brocolli, cauli etc for £1 in places like aldi and sainsburies which will last ages. A huge bag of lentils is about a £1 if you shop around and so on. Raw ingredients are generally cheap but you do have to be able to cook.

And as the old saying goes, if you can read, then you can cook.

 

 

 

You didn't read my comment about the rice? I've also boiled eggs till they've started exploding in the pan. The pan didn't handle it too well either.

[VladimirIlyich]

 

I agree the shite food is the cheapest - I go into Iceland once in a blue moon as they have this granary bread I like and I was seeing loads of mothers and kids buying up all Icelands fucking vile looking £1 for 10 beef burgers, £1 for 20 sausages, £1 for 20 KFC-style chicken wings. Fucking hell.

 

But I disagree with the implication that healthy food is expensive, if you are going to cook it yourself that is.

 

You can get a big bag of frozen brocolli, cauli etc for £1 in places like aldi and sainsburies which will last ages. A huge bag of lentils is about a £1 if you shop around and so on. Raw ingredients are generally cheap but you do have to be able to cook.

 

And as the old saying goes, if you can read, then you can cook.

 

But the reason,in some cases,they are buying the shite is that it will feed a good sized family for a while and will keep for ages in the freezer and therefore save a bit of money for clothes for school or to pay bills.

 

Not all of those parents smoke and drink it away although there are still a fair few who do.