Parents with obese kids?

Question

Do you think parents who over-feed their kids should be charged with neglect or abuse if the child does not have a medical problem that causes their obesity?

Personally, I think they should. I remember seeing a story about a girl who was near 7 and could not walk due to her obesity and she had no medical problems that caused it. Her mom just over-fed her and the girl was close to death. Luckily, she got help.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

Thank you for asking this! I'm going to tell a true story so please bare with me. The story consists of my aunt, cousin and grandmother.

My aunt (Her name is Theresa) was quite a skinny baby. My grandmother got worried about her and brought her to the doctor. The doctor told her to feed Theresa some more just to fatten her up a small bit- just to make her the ideal weight for a baby. But my grandmother took the doctors advise too seriously. She felt bad that Theresa was so skinny so she OVER FED her. Theresa grew up fat as a teenager and when she hit her college years, she decided to lose the weight. She went to Jenny Craig and lost all the weight and became a very very attractive woman.

She got pregnant with her husband and gave birth to her first child; a girl- named Seaneen. Then a few years later she got pregnant again and gave birth to a boy named Brogan. (Seaneen and Brogan are my cousins.)  After giving birth to Brogan, Theresa never lost all the weight after the pregnancy and she again was fat. (not obese.) Theresa felt almost angry with Brogan because it was because of him that she kept all the pregnancy weight- so she thought.

So to make herself feel better, she OVER FED Brogan who is now so extremely obese. My grandmother also over fed Brogan as she lives with Theresa and her husband, Mike. My grandmother and Theresa both over fed Brogan because of their guilt and self consciousness, respectively.

Seaneen gained weight because everyone was concentrating on Brogan and slightly neglected her. Mike is a complete wimp and wouldn't ever dream of standing up to Theresa, my grandmother or even Seaneen. Seaneen too, grew up fat and eventually Mike gained weight too. The sad truth is that, Seaneen will do the same to her kids- it's a vicious circle and it all started with my grandmother.

When you say neglect, I find it slightly ironic. I think Brogan is obese because he (as bad as this sounds) he wasn't neglected enough. Every few minutes, Theresa or my grandmother would ask him to eat something. My grandmother feeds Brogan after the guilt of Theresa being skinny as a baby. Theresa over feeds him because she feels (deep down inside) that it's kind of his fault that she kept all the weight after giving birth to him. I don't think it's America's fault that children are fat, I feel it's the parents fault. America does have healthy food, but the parents wont feed it to them.

yes, there is a huge chance that Brogan wont live till he's 12 (he's 10 now) but I  know that he will lose the weight, the same way I know the sun will come up each morning.

Answer 2

I believe the case you are referring to was in Tennessee.  In that case the family qualified for medical insurance based on the Cover Tennessee Plan for low income families who do not have traditional health insurance.  No excuses for the child not to get care.  Many people are genetically predisposed to obesity just like drug abuse.  If you are genetically predisposed it just means you have to take additional steps to prevent or regress your disease.  The girl is not going to become morbidly obese by eating carrot sticks.  It is the fried chicken, ice cream, soda and candy packing on the pounds.  Yes, I think the parents should be charged with neglect.  Just a side not while in college I worked at a weight loss clinic for morbidly obese as a receptionist.  I would see patient charts and frequently over heard cell phone conversations and such.  I noticed the more weight the more family, emotional, and physiological problems the person tended to have.  I think medical treatment should be combined with therapy for morbidly obese.

Answer 3

Australia is kicking America's bum as the fattest country in the world... WOO! AUZZIE AUZZIE AUZZIE!

Answer 4

It depends on the situation. In that 7 year old girls case, I'd be inclined to blame the mother, but I don't know all the details.

I turned into fat kid when I hit puberty, but it wasn't because my parents neglected me and gave me too much bad food. They fought with me through my teen years trying to convince me to work out, eat less (I didn't eat unhealthy food, my parents never have junk food in the house, I just liked to eat a lot and often), and at one point they even wanted to take me to a doctor to get help. I don't attribute my physical condition to their neglect, they tried.They were not obese themselves and always set a good example, I was just stubborn. My obesity is my fault, I accept responsibility for it as should other fat kids in this country. It's not always the parent that's the problem.

Answer 5

Absolutely they should be charged with neglect. There is no reason to let a child get obese. Pushing unhealthy or too much food on a child is no different than offering them drugs or alcohol.

Answer 6

Yes, the other day I saw this family of 5 who were all obese. The mom, dad, and their three kids were all fat. It made me mad.

Though sometimes its a medical problem with the kids, but most of the time its just the parents fault.

Answer 7

You know as a parent you can't win, if your child doesn't eat it's your fault, if your child is a public nuisance it's your fault and so on, as parents we know and feel all the guilt we don't need it pointing out to us all the time. Sometimes if a child over eats they may be doing it secretively like a child who is starving themselves but it seems to me it's more acceptable for a child with bulimia or anorexia to be labelled as an ill child that needs the love and support of their parent to work with professionals to get them well, yet a child who is over eating needs to be taken away from their parent and family home and no such offers of help to them.

There are many psychological and medical reasons for a child  been over weight, the family should be worked with and offered help, not kids taken away from there parents.

Answer 8

yes that 7 yr old was Jessica, and her mom was obese to and that is a very sad and cruel thing if the parent insists on eating dont let this happen

Answer 9

YES because it IS abuse people claim genetics did you know very few people like one in a few MILLION actually have a real disease linked to obesity. I seen this HUGE woman like at least 300 pounds feeding this little ball shaped baby ice cream. Anyone who says its not abuse is insane because that stuff kills them.

Answer 10

Some children that are obese are that way because of genetics and healthy problems as well as sonme medications can cause weight gain.  I do agree that when a parent allows their children to be to the point of almost dying from it that then they need someone to step in and say something so the parents should be taught about nutrition but it would have to be proven that it was neglect on the part of the parent and not a medical problem.  I do think though like i said that parents who choose to allow their children to eat nothing but junk food and their children are so obese it is affecting their health majorly that they should have to take nutrional classes.  Of course it would be great if schools would offer healthy food as well instead of filling up our children with worse food than most children even get at home.