A rising hunger among children

A rising hunger among children

www.boston.com

Doctors at a major Boston hospital report they are seeing more hungry and dangerously thin young children in the emergency room than at any time in more than a decade of surveying families.

Many families are unable to afford enough healthy food to feed their children, say the Boston Medical Center doctors. The resulting chronic hunger threatens to leave scores of infants and toddlers with lasting learning and developmental problems.

(visit the link for the full news article)

How many of you who opened this thread expected to see a story about Africa or some other place "far away"? Did you expect Boston?

The wolf is at the door, folks. Childhood hunger causes developmental difficulties that are still apparent decades after a famine in places like Biafra, Cambodia, and North Korea. Add Massachusetts to the list.



www.boston.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

You can "hunger" too be free as well.

Those are some scary statistics. We all expected these stories, but it's sad nevertheless. We probably don't hear about all the effects the food prices are having around the world. I've been stocking up a lot myself. Glad I did with this debt deal looming. S&F

Isn't it expected? High unemployment/. Failing economy.

This is exactly what the president needs to be made aware of and he needs to acknowledge it!

It is very very sad for more reasons than the obvious

This is outrageous.
We have plenty of money for pensions for congressmen and senators; plenty of money for their medical plans; plenty of money for new government oversight administrations; plenty of money for foreign aide; plenty of money for war......
but no money to feed our own down and out citizens.

I'm surprised that's not happening in more places within developed countries. The cost of living has risen exponentially. It's not just children who are starving, either. When I went to university in Australia I couldn't pay rent and afford to eat properly. If any unexpected cost came up, I'd starve. I suffered from malnutrition, as did pretty much every other student who wasn't lucky enough to have their family help them out every step of the way. That's how a lot of people get by, they starve during their studies and then only start to eat well when they've entered the workforce.

So much of it goes unreported though, too much. Perhaps if the situation were reported more frequently something might be done about it. Those big corporations don't need to charge struggling people so much for their most basic food.

Originally posted by BobAthome
You can "hunger" too be free as well.

Very true. I'm sure that for the time being, however, simple availability of heathy food would be a more pressing concern for most of these kids.

This is why foreign aid should be an afterthought only to nations with a poverty rate of less than 1%. But hey, that's what the west has in common with some third world countries; a refusal to look after their own. Seriously, how bad do things need to get before things start getting done?

Could it be ,that over time the 'correct 'size and weight of children has been distorted due to obesity problems and now the children showing up are actually a healthy weight.Seriously send your concerns to real famine problems.
At least in Boston, i am sure there is drinking water even for the poorest.

Originally posted by 12voltz
Could it be ,that over time the 'correct 'size and weight of children has been distorted due to obesity problems and now the children showing up are actually a healthy weight.Seriously send your concerns to real famine problems.
At least in Boston, i am sure there is drinking water even for the poorest.

edit on 28-7-2011 by 12voltz because: (no reason given)

The article quotes doctors, who presumably are able to judge such things, report that the percentage of chronically malnourished chidren they see in Boston ia 18%.

They provide stats. You provide...what? "I just can't believe it?" Because everyone on TV is happy and well-fed?

One of the things about America that separates it from most other countries is that it is frightfully easy to isolate yourself from poverty. Jostling around the streets of Bangkok or Manila, even the wealthiest comes into contact with squalor on a daily basis. But in the US it's easy to isloate yourself completely in your hermetic community among people of your own class and surround yourself with denial-based media to the point where you don't even notice nearly 1 in 5 kids in the "bad neighborhoods nobdody should go to" are basically starving to death.

That is so sad, and so scary also. When something happens it ripples across the states. this government needs to be stopped, impeachment anyone? we need to step up america when our governmetn takes so much we cant even offer decent food to our children is going way to far. This is bad and ony just beggining. Someone said, we need to go and camp out at the white house as we become unemployed and homeless, If i became homeless you bet your bottom dollar you will se me camped out at the white house.

Originally posted by Partygirl
The article quotes doctors, who presumably are able to judge such things. . .

How do you measure hunger? Do you ask the children if they are hungry?

reply to post by silent thunder


I don't know, me being a parent my children would NEVER be in that shape... I'd make darn sure they had food before I or their father did, I would beg borrow and steal to feed them before I let them be this way as described in the article. This is sad I would starve myself first, and if I saw my neighbor's child like that I would be helping them out, I just could never let a child suffer.

I don't think anyone starves in America, but I am quite sure a large number of people go hungry or are malnourished.

One problem is that people need to be better educated on how to make healthy eating choices, but beyond that they need access to good food. When you don't have much money to spare, you tend to eat cheap, which of course means the worst possible food, full of chemicals and low-quality meats, etc. Its possible to eat well on even the most meagre of budgets if you know what you ate doing. (My total food budget was $25 a month in 1989 and I survived). But most people dont know what they are doing of course, and it doesn't help that large industries such as agribusiness basically are predicated on exploiting this.

I would like to first blame those that choose to breed despite their financial hardships. Secondly, we can blame our economy and the veil of corruption that retains the majority of the wealth generated by the country to a select few. Third, everyday people need to play a larger role in their communities by volunteer work or donations.

Too many Americans are hoarders and are emotionally tied to material things. Any chance I get to donate books, clothes or food, I do it. That's one way to give back.

Some of these parents just don't know how to buy food...they don't know what real food is, so when they go to buy it a lot of it is unhealthy, expensive processed food. Even organic produce isn't that expensive if you shop right. Instead of buying "fruit snacks" for 3 dollars could have gotten a large bag of apples around the same price and they last longer. I've seen in documentaries families that insist on going for fast food for breakfast because it's cheaper than anything else they say. It's not cheaper.

There's a lot of them, not only in Africa but in the diffent places, cities or countries around the world. I hope every people in the world could help even just a little cents coz if each of 100 people will donate a $1 /1coin .. it will become a big help for those who needs it.

Originally posted by guessing
Isn't it expected? High unemployment/. Failing economy.

This is exactly what the president needs to be made aware of and he needs to acknowledge it!

It is very very sad for more reasons than the obvious

This is what the Democrats have been aiming for. How long have Democrats whined about the high living standard that American's enjoyed? How long did Democrat's long for mass cheap domestic labor(millions of American's so poor they would gladly work at below illegal rates)?

How much time do Democrats spend romanticizing and glorifying shanty towns and other makeshift mass poverty "towns"?

Or all these Democrats complaining because food is too cheap in America(Democrats have been complaining for over 20 years about the fact that American's spend a much lower percentage of our incomes on food), did you think they wouldn't try to cause the price to go up?

The Democrats weren't lieing when they called us "the unwashed masses", because in their minds that is how we should be. And how we will become if they are allowed in office again(Remember this Depression was caused by the actions of the 06 Democrat controlled Congress).

They couldn't get Cap n Trade in or any of their other socialist/communist nation destroying law's(and the one they did get passed is on the verge of being destroyed in the Courts) so they decided on the route of inflation to accomplish the same goals. After the economy has been inflated to reach their desirable goals(see Brazil, Mexico for what the Democrats and Social Conservatives/Neo Conservatives want) they will bring about gradual deflation.

Because the original plan was the leftist(remember both neocons and social cons are leftist's too, just in a different way) would get what they wanted and so would the bankers(under cap n trade). But because cap n trade failed they will eventually have to deflate the economy(after they rob everyone blind via inflation) leaving the rich to become super freakin unbelievably rich, and everyone else little more then serfs.