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Should caring for child who is medically considered 'obese' be claimed as child abuse?
I live in New Jersey, America - and there is no question that America has an obesity problem... I see college students take elevators up one floor, children (under 11) who are over 100 pounds at the flea market, soccer mom vans at the McDonalds drive thru with a full load of kids, and so much more...
Children are unequipped with the ability to make full and conscious decisions about their diets. Yet, the decision of over feeding a child does not just harm them in health, but in future developments of their body.
Until about 25, the human body is still developing. For a child to be overweight and growing up, their bodies are being stressed out far more than they should be naturally. The body compensates, but can never fully adapt to being overweight.
Forget drugs. Food is harming more people in this nation than anything else, next to alcohol.
When is the day going to come when I can treat an over eater like a smoker?
"Put down that cheeseburger, look at yourself!"
Yes, I understand we have the right to choose, but a child doesn't. A child will not know the full awareness of their choices until they are probably a late teenager.
Should we create laws preventing children from reaching obesity? How about adults? Should adults have to be court ordered diets?
Fun fact: In America, the lower income areas are usually more heavy - why? Because processed food is far cheaper than organic.
Perhaps we need a better education about physical fitness? Rather than just let kids play "gym" teach them diet and nutrition?
Argument of Genetics; In anyway that weight issues can be blamed on the parents being large... The time period where people are dying from weight problems is but a fraction of a fraction of the time periods in which is was not. Genetics is a poor excuse, plan and simple.
Steve C
I don't know who would be controlling what weight (or BMI) the "obese" tag would start at; at this time, I think it starts a little low, (what is it - "ten-pounds over" the average BMI?).
I've heard of a gym teacher here calling one young girl fat - who is *nowhere* near fat - she's so "not-fat" that I *seriously* think he needs his head examined!)
"Forget drugs. Food is harming more people in this nation than anything else..." !!That oughta be embossed in pure gold (1000 font-size) aside the 150-busiest freeways in America!! AND they should put that on the front of food packages - like cigarettes have to pout warnings on theirs.
I don't see too many 11-y-o kids over 100 lbs... (come to think of it, I don't see too many 11 y-os anywhere anymore).
We need to do something, but I don't think we "just need *more* laws." I don't even think we need to address the issue directly. I think it's just one of several effects of some subtle cause.
It might also help to take some focus off of winning a game, & trying your best & having fun. Back in school, I remember a lot of kids half-assing it around the track. I wonder if that's because they started the "race" knowing they weren't going to "win."
Carolina Luzardi
Each parent is responsible for what their kid is eating. Change should start at home and parents must be the role models for their children, showing them how to eat healthy and exercise. It’s very easy to blame it all on external factor and sit around waiting for someone else to change it. The ones demanding changes should be the parents!! But this is not going to happen while parents choose to keep eating junk.
MTV also has a very interesting program “I used to be fat” were teens get help to lose weight. What stroke me the most of this show is that most of these teens were overweight because their families are overweight. You can see on each show the amount of junk food there is on each home. The trainers had to ask the families to support the teens by cutting out on junk food. Unfortunately most of them didn’t and you can see very clearly that they prefer to eat whatever they like rather than making a sacrifice for their children's well being and that is SHOCKING. http://remotecontrol.mtv.com/category/shows/i_used_to_be_fat/
Also there is the story of another kid and you can see the documentary it’s called “Half Ton” in Channel 4. This is a clear example that some parents just don’t know how to handle it or can’t do it and someone has to intervene, like in this case or otherwise that kid would of died.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/2107664/Teen-balloons-to-60st-gorging-on-mums-junk-food-meals.html
TJ Brewer
This is a problem that our society should work to solve collaboratively. Putting the child's parents in jail then adds a host of additional problems.
I keep thinking that there's a point to be made here about being able to feed a person 2 McDonalds Cheeseburgers every day for a month for about $70
vs the cost of ANY other food, including cooking at home.
Personally, the best thing I did for my child was cancel cable TV; both of us lost weight. HBO just aired a great special called THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION. It's a 4 part series addressing this issue. It's free on their website.
Fenni Sim
We should also educate them on the benefits of exercise, get them exposed to different sports, as they might just find themselves a new sports hobby! :) The main idea here is to get them off the couch and build a healthy psyche from young.
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
Make parent education for child care, mandatory - or at least give an incentive; in Mexico a mother gets paid by the government to make sure they go to school, visit the doctor and attend first aid programs.. Should be enhanced and implemented here. Small price to pay with taxes to support our future... Laws, definitely, no question, make parents do this!
Fenni Sim
It's training them to be stronger. :)
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
Noah Crossfield
The truth is that the government's best way to change this bad habit is through the school systems. I know my high school has very strict regulations on what can be sold. This is probably the most efficient way for the government to change the situation. This regulation of foods, proper exercise, and education on healthy eating can all be offered through the school system.
The biggest problem is just with how society handles eating. It is easy and cheap to get fast food. This fits with our culture, so it isn't very surprising that America has an obesity problem
Carolina Luzardi
Stephan Unger
"Put down that cheeseburger, look at yourself!"
Here is a problem in my opinion. The question is what you want to achieve. Do you want to achieve that the obese people get less fat or do you want to be able to mock them? When confronting a person with a problem in a negative way you usually get a negative reaction, which is fine if you want to argue with a person, but is not good if you want to convince someone to do something.
People are extremly influenced by advertisements and they are especially receptive when lacking education about this subject. In my opinion one important step would be to increase the level of education in school in addition to banning fast food products from schools.
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
I agree about the education in school - "gym class" is a joke as a part of a curriculum, just a waste of time and saves the schools thousands a year; avoiding to buy more books.
Jonathon Compton
Do you ban McDonald's, Burger King, Hardees, etc?
Do you outlaw Snickers, Butterfinger, Hershey's bars?
Do you make a law where everyone must be able to run a 10 minute mile in order to obtain a driver's license?
As a parent, it sickens me to think about parents who let a videogame babysit their child or a movie supervise their teenager. I'm sickened by the fact that so many parents are too lazy to get off the couch and go outside and simply walk with their children. But I just don't think we can legislate against the parent who has an obese child.
Asthma and allergies is also on the rise in America and I'm sure in other countries. What do we do to the parents of asthmatics? If a child has an allergic reaction to peanut-butter and goes into anaphylactic shock do we send the parent to jail?
Educate the parents to use healthy eating habits and teach their children the same healty lifestyle. "Anything in moderation" is what we teach our kids about food. Even the good things -- too many apples in one day can make a person sick.
Eventually, with a healthier nation, our healthcare costs will come down and the nation's productivity will increase.
Scott Armstrong 50+
Where is the responsibility in the food industry? Shit sells, everyone knows that but chasing dollars doesn't justify peddling crap without consequence.
In NZ, McDonalds offers salads and donates a couple of hundred soccer balls a year to schools and soccer clubs in order to "balance" the damage their product is doing to the health of society. As far as kids and their diet decisions go, it doesn't help that there a "playgrounds" and toys to help lure them in.
It is about personal choice but if you're talking legislation, it's got to be aimed at the junk food companies and restaurants, not individual consumers.
Nicholas Lukowiak 50+
Children cannot make a full conscious choice, if they are under ten years old and obese, they will have problems physically for life. A sense of acceptance can follow, along with a shorter life span due to uncontrolled nurturing.
I'm not blaming fast food, or even just parents. It is the system, just a huge vicious cycle. Put down the cheese steak Scott!
Commercialization - just so impeded in our culture of T.V zombies; teaching little kids to like Burger King rather than geology or astronomy, before they can full form sentences... Parents and education have to be the anti-brain washers not the enablers... Everyone deserves a finger point here in this debate.
Scott Armstrong 50+
I agree about the insidiousness of advertising. It's disgusting how many companies target schools in NZ. They generally get in the door under some positive cover (eg. McDonald's run a road safety school campaign) and get further under the kids' skin.
But it's no surprise these days that kids who struggle to recite their 2x tables can rattle off all the 0800 phone numbers to all the pizza companies like it was imprinted in their DNA.
Heather White 10+
It is a fact that junk food is comparatively cheap and prolific, but once you take ignorance about diet out of the equation you're only left with deliberate wilfulness, "It's my life and I can eat what I want!" Well no, not if you're a parent who dishes up crap to your kids seven days a week - you’re a social menace and a public health hazard like someone who coughs and sneezes over everyone on a bus.
A 2kg bag of mixed frozen veg is cheaper than a mega pack of crisps. A 2kg bag of spuds costs about the same as a large bag of oven chips so why not give your kids the option of jacket potatoes or boiled or mashed potatoes.
Fresh fruit can be bought cheaply (e.g. 8 apples for 80p) if buying "on offer", "seasonal" or "non-perfectly shaped" items, and is certainly cheaper than bags of sweets or chocolate bars. A supermarket standard brown loaf costs the same as a white loaf.
We eat too much meat anyway so cheap fatty pies, sausages, burgers and "Turkey Twizzlers" dished up every day could be cut out in favour of portions of frozen fish, scrambled eggs or low fat mince made up into spaghetti bolognaise or a home made burger. Frozen chicken / turkey portions are also inexpensive and can add to the variety of meat eaten only 3 or 4 times a week.
Eating crap is just habit. It’s lazy, brainless shopping - I see it more and more - great fat lumps of lard pushing the king sized shopping cart slowly up the aisles, trailing a flotilla of hyper active kids in their wake. Never stopping at the fruit and veg sections they pass straight though to the pie, crisp, frozen chips, brown sauce and mayo, fizzy pop and booze sections before stocking up on the fags.
Yes, regulate the food processing companies but enjoying a burger once a month won't kill you - crap parents probably will.
Heather White 10+
I'm totally with you on this one - kids are getting fat and obese in the UK too. Unhealthy fast food, portion size, not enough exercise and eating at the wrong time of day. Too many people skip breakfast, have a sandwich, packet of crisps and chocolate bar for lunch and then have a massive blow out at 8pm. It's too much of the wrong food eaten at the wrong time of day - and it'll kill millions.
I like to spread this fact around:
There are 7 billion people in the world - 1 billion are starving while 1.6 billion are obese!
To answer your question - in the first instance parents of overweight children should be referred by the child's doctor or school nurse to attend classes about obesity and its impact on children's physical and emotional health (including the impact of being bullied). They should also be made to attend cooking classes where food types, portion sizes, meal plans and recipies are made - nice and practical.
If nothing changes for the child - I'd be quite happy to dish them up some jail time.
Jonathon Compton
Heather White 10+