MY FIRST QUESTION – Should parents lose custody of obese kids?
This is my first question and as many know obesity is a very dear subject of mine considering I used to be obese myself. I would like to get opinions on this topic. There has been an abundance of new material posted regarding this topic. Let me know your thoughts!
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2011/07/14/2011-07-14_should…
Fuel the Movement,
JM
Thanks for the question, Jason. It forced me to think it through more thoroughly. You hit a real hot button with your first question. When I saw the article in the newspaper a few days ago, I was thinking about it and talked with others.
When you read about a 14 year old who weighs 550 lbs, the answers seems obvious. And according to the article, he has done great in a different environment, lost already quite a bit of that weight and is therefore much healthier. So for that scenario, it was the best for the child.
The author of the article equates an extremely obese child with an abused child. The result in either case is a child with compromised health, and in both cases it is caused by parents who do not have adequate parenting skills.
But there are also vast differences. Our society condemns – and quite rightly so – the abuse of a child through any form of physical or emotional agression. However, the nourishing of a child is the first responsibility of a parent. We reward with food, food is the center of many celebrations, it is a means of bonding. There is the proverbial breaking of break as an essential community activity. One of the first things couples do after they are married is feeding each other wedding cake.
With so many triggers in our society that equate food with love, where is the line to be drawn? I like to assume that those parent do not mean to harm their children but do not know how to handle the conflicting messages.
In summary. I believe that it may be necessary for a child to be temporarily removed from this toxic love. But the parents need to be educated as much as the child with the hope that they all can resume a jhealthy parent/child relationship later in the future.