government takes obese child away from mother

big brother steps in

this is the first case in the state of ohio where a child is taken away from the parents for obesity.

what do you guys think? has this gone too far? dont parents have the right to raise THEIR child as they see fit?(no pun intended)

now we can have our kids taken away because they're too fat? whats next? they get taken away because we force them to eat vegetables?

seriously though, who's to blame? the parents? the schools for removing P.E from elementary schools and making it optional in highschool? is the cafeteria food to blame?

whatever happened to the days, were we would play outside until dark playing kickball or tag..now its about the ipad 2 and how many movies we can watch in our bathrooms...

who the hell gave big brother the power to take OUR kids away? was it us the people?


i think not

reply to post by k1k1to

CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio third-grader who weighs more than 200 pounds has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight. The Plain Dealer reports (http://(link tracking not allowed)/t68M7D ) that the Cleveland 8-year-old is considered severely obese and at risk for such diseases as diabetes and hypertension.

An Eight year old that weighs 200lbs... I'm 24 and 6'5'' he weighs almost as much as I do. As much as I hate the government stepping in anytime this is cruelty and neglect the same as if the parents were cooking meth.

Since obesity is becoming the number one killer in the country and is raising heath care cost for everyone I think this is the best thing for the child. The parents obviously either don't care or are incapable of raising a healthy child.

I think the parents if mentally fit should face criminal abuse/neglect charges.

If you think about it. The burden he will put on the state now is far less then he will on welfare with the tax payers paying for his medical bill cause he cant stop eating.

EDIT: i had a rant. didnt think of other views on the subject and now contradict myself XD

reply to post by k1k1to


also you shouldnt rely on schools to keep your kids active you should be out playing and doign things with them

some people i wonder why they have kids if all they do is sling them in front of a tv and feed them and wonder why they get fat and have health issues.

Oh and sorry ...Great find OP! S&F!! il be sharing this!

From what I've read .... there have been cases of this .... the state takes fat kids away from their parents 'abuse' only to find out years and years later that the foster parents can't get the kids' weight under control either AND the problem was MEDICAL not PARENTAL.

So the kids have medical conditions .. and now thanks to the state taking them from their families they also have even more psychological problems on top of the medical.

Unless the state can prove the mother is feeding the kids sticks of butter for snacks or something ... this is wrong.

raised 6 boys 4 skinny as can be no matter what they ate . 2 that easly gained weight no matter how offton i took them out . Ps we were NOT the watch tv type of family The boys spent most of there time out doors and I spent as much as possible with them as well parks zoos playgrounds .
Even still teh two boys just couldnt get slim . we cooked our own food freash No packeged stuff for these kids .
koolaid milk juice (soad once in a wile NEVER bk or fast food (ok rarly once a month )
still they couldnt get slim Like it of not some people are just not going to be skinny . Well maybe if i starved them? the otehr four could have ate any thing they wanted any time and never gained a ounce.
so tell me how do you say what weight a person should be?
a 200 pound 8 year old ok how tall was he ? after all I seen guys like taht when i was in school biggest kid in school toped 230 had a special helment made for him (football) was probly 6 foot tall . was he fat to?
personialy i think people should worry more about ntehm self then others .

The government will no dare to do that here in the south, because most of the school children in the south are obese to begin with.

Sad but truth, perhaps they do that on people in states where obesity is not as wide spread, but here in the south is an epidemic.

reply to post by DisIllusioned PatRiot


agree. Its a form of abuse, and if the parents cant see that then they shouldnt have them,
in todays world we are much more aware of things... like GREED.. eat to much you get fat.

Having read the article and the ops statement, the following can be stated:

The question is who is to blame, the answer is quiet simple: We the people are to blame.

The reasoning for this is very simple if you look at the laws and current trends in parenting that is around the country. The first part goes back to the parents, after all the word NO, seems to be something that they do not use enough of when it comes to their children. No, when the child cries out for wanting a candy bar, or a trip to McDonalds, no when it comes to that new video game or computer, no when it comes to the TV. Many parents tend to give in, and if they don’t or show any sign of discipline, then what happens the state gets involved, cause there is a suspected case of child abuse.

The second is the government, what about that new legislation where Pizza was declared a vegetable? After all the children in schools need to eat healthy right? What is so healthy about pizza? And then there are the laws to protect the children. Can’t have competition in school cause a child might feel inadequate about his performance, and have to cut out PE, cause a child might get hurt, and well there goes tag, or any other game where a child might fall and scrap their knee. How about simple activities like riding a bike, wait a minute, can’t do that without helmet, knee pads and all of the safety gear involved. And we can’t have the children outside in the sun, after all it may lead to skin cancer in the future for the child.

Lets face it, this situation was created by we the people, and like all laws with the best of intentions, we never once stopped to ask, at the time, what is the long term consequence of these laws, what would the out come be, and is there going to be something negative for the laws. Time to wake up and parents start being parents, and use the one power that they have left to their disposal, the power of the word NO and the authority to no give their child anything the child wants to eat, or take them to McDonalds, or allow them to have candy, or any junk food. Time for the parents to get back involved in making the decisions and stop crying to the government for ridiculous things like taking the cartoon characters off of cereal boxes, or demanding that fast food places stop targeting young people. Time that parents start using the word No.

But on a side note, the state also has a vested interest in protecting this child. The child is young and weighs over 200 pounds, for his age, he is obese and seriously so, as there are questions as to what the child is eating, and why is this young child so fat. Are there underlying medical conditions that are not attended to, is the child, apart from being seriously overweight, healthy, or is there something else that the parents are neglecting? And while the child needs to loose weight, it has to be done very safely, too drastic of a drop in weight could cause serious problems for this child in the long run as well.

Ultimately, there are way too many problems, and the causes are coming from too many sources for there to be an easy answer.

Originally posted by sdcigarpig
The question is who is to blame, the answer is quiet simple: We the people are to blame.

Um ... no. For many reasons, but here are the biggies ...

1 - Personal responsibility. Parents and children have a responsibility to take care of themselves.

2 - We don't live in a nanny state (THANK GOD).

3 - This could be a MEDICAL CONDITION that the child has. It has happened before. The idiots at the state level remove fat kids and place them in foster care for years and years only to find out that the foster parents can't control the weight because the kids have a MEDICAL CONDITION. Then the poor kid not only has a medical condition but psychological problems because he was removed from his 'unfit' home. It is unknown if this child has a medical condition or not. And there is nothing to suggest the state has done it's homework in this area.

The truth to be told, obesity in America is due to the manufacturing and processing methods used in the US, Americans consume more manufactured foods that whole foods, eats more outside that at home and when eats at home is usually prepackage foods.

So who is to blame?

The food industry or the personal choices.

Before anybody answers to that, take away your preconceived opinions and take a time to understand how the food industry works and think what choices people have specially if you are in a welfare budget.

Personal choices are not really the issue, yes is part of the problem but not the main issue.

Originally posted by sdcigarpig
Having read the article and the ops statement, the following can be stated:

The question is who is to blame, the answer is quiet simple: We the people are to blame.

The reasoning for this is very simple if you look at the laws and current trends in parenting that is around the country. The first part goes back to the parents, after all the word NO, seems to be something that they do not use enough of when it comes to their children. No, when the child cries out for wanting a candy bar, or a trip to McDonalds, no when it comes to that new video game or computer, no when it comes to the TV. Many parents tend to give in, and if they don’t or show any sign of discipline, then what happens the state gets involved, cause there is a suspected case of child abuse.

.

this is the problem with my wife...saying NO...she gives in so easily almost as if though she is being manipulated by my daughter into giving in..im always "the bad guy" because i have a sense of dicipline and im not affraid to say NO, i dont care how much you cry, how much you stomp your feet, im in charge and no means no, unfortunately when im not around her mother spoils the hell out of her, and then capitol punishment is frowned upon by this country..

i miss the good old days where you could beat some sense into your child, i turned out just fine, i never spoke back, hit back, or murdured my parents i never went on a shooting spree at school, and let me tell you i got my ass whopped quite often

Originally posted by marg6043
The truth to be told, obesity in America is due to the manufacturing and processing methods used in the US, Americans consume more manufactured foods that whole foods, eats more outside that at home and when eats at home is usually prepackage foods.

So who is to blame?

The food industry or the personal choices.

Before anybody answers to that, take away your preconceived opinions and take a time to understand how the food industry works and think what choices people have specially if you are in a welfare budget.

Personal choices are not really the issue, yes is part of the problem but not the main issue.

agree with this aswell...


lets do some math in todays economy...

a head of cabbage approx $4
or
you could just buy 5 tacos at taco bell for about $5 and change..

thats the problem eating healthy is now expensive and time consuming.

so parents go the cheap way, buy 5 tacos for $5 bucks, or 5 double cheeseburgers for the same price, the kids are fed, you didnt have to cook anything, and you save money..

reply to post by FlyersFan

Really you don’t think we are too blame?

Well then why is McDonalds constantly under fire on both coasts? After all it made the news, where one group representing parents were suing McDonalds, part of the claim is that eating at McDonalds made them fat, or their children fat.

And what about the state of New York, specifically the city of New York, banning the use of salt in restaurants? After all their claims that such led to higher numbers of people having high blood pressure and there fore in the interest of protecting the general population, it banned such?

And the lack of outside activities for children, or that competition sports are being phased out, even the game of tag has been discouraged in many states in the schools cause a child might get hurt. Well there are consequences to every action and laws these days, and many of which we all cry about after such comes to fruition.

And what about Prohibition? After all it was for the public good, the arguments for such were that such led to the downfall of the family, the children would suffer, the end of family life as the country would know it all around the use of alcohol and drinking.

While we do not know if the child has any medical conditions, this is true, but this child did not get that large over night, and it has been building, and the article did not go through and point out if the parents were taking their child to the doctor for any medical conditions.

While there are parents out there that limit what their children do, and consume, the facts are that there are far greater that do not, and fail to uphold on that responsibility.

Ultimately we did this to ourselves, more convenient, easier to prepare, and ultimately it leads to food that is far unhealthier in the long run.

You are wrong on several aspects:

1) Personal responsibility: Parents have a responsibility to protect children, not for the child to take care of themselves, as they do not know how to, especially a young child.

2) We do live in a partial nanny state, when the government comes in and dictates what we can and can not consume, or do in our private lives. Look at the laws of the country, when it comes to parenting, and see how the laws are tightening up around them, from law suits against different companies that serve food, to what a parent can and can not do, such as spank, or even smoke. Those laws are constantly tightening up to the point where you can not sneeze around a child, without having DCPS involved. And automatically the adult is considered guilty, before a trial.

3) And the state is no better at raising a child, look at all of the children who went to foster or even into a state facility, the horror stories that they tell, well lets just say the inquisition seemed like a walk in the park on that end.

I don't agree with it.
After all, what's more obese than the government?

Nothing.

reply to post by FlyersFan


and we know how wonderful the foster care system is-people in it for the checks they get -years from now when we find out this child has been abused while in the foster care system what then-and what about the kid who is really being beaten and/or raped in their own home-there wont be any place for them.

3 - This could be a MEDICAL CONDITION that the child has. It has happened before. The idiots at the state level remove fat kids and place them in foster care for years and years only to find out that the foster parents can't control the weight because the kids have a MEDICAL CONDITION. Then the poor kid not only has a medical condition but psychological problems because he was removed from his 'unfit' home. It is unknown if this child has a medical condition or not. And there is nothing to suggest the state has done it's homework in this area.

"Medical conditions" cannot violate the principle of conservation of energy. If you're fat, it's because you're eating more than your body is using. Get over it.

Originally posted by sdcigarpig
Really you don’t think we are too blame?

No. Personal responsibility. I have done NOTHING to make ANY child fat.
For you to make a collective statement ... we are all to blame for fat kids .. is absurd.
We aren't the borg. We are individuals with the ability to make our own decisions.

And again .. in the past the state has made the mistake of taking away fat kids, because they were fat, only to find out years later that there was nothing wrong happening at home and it was a medical condition. The 'state' is full of people who are clueless and who step in and mess up others lives without using their brains.

Just because the state took the kid away from the parents does NOT mean that the kid is fat because of the parents. There are medical conditions that could be present. I saw nothing telling us that the state checked that out before stepping in.

You are wrong on several aspects:

No. I am absolutely correct.

reply to post by k1k1to


The Govt has no business in this matter.

Nanny Govt steps in to "save" the day

What a crock.