Obese boy to stay with mother

[SanVito]

@ENugent

They must be doing something. The boy has lost over 20 pounds in the last nine weeks. Continuing support is probably appropriate, but I don’t understand why people are so hot to have him removed from the home when he is making safe and reasonable progress, and clearly wants to stay with his mother.

They are, and have been, doing something. Nobosy has suggested that they’re so ‘hot to have the kid removed’, except, of course, the mother. The only reason this story got anywhere near the press is because the Mother called the Media in, which is another revealing thing about the mother. Social Services clearly can’t comment on this case so we’re getting a very jaundiced view of things.

I imagine the scenario goes something like this.
Kid starts to miss a lot of school.
Social services are called in the find out what’s going on.
Social services are appalled by state of child’s health.
Social Services advise mother of action she must take to restore health of child.
Mother is completely ineffectual.
Social services make repeated attempts to intervene and get mother off her arse and do something.
Mother whinges and whines and does nothing.
Boy still fat, unhealthy and missing school.
Social services, at end of tether, warn mother this cannot go on.
Mother says, ‘yeh, whatever, he’s my kid not yours’
Social services use last resort of ‘threatening’ that child ‘could’ be removed as mother refuses to do anything.
Mother finally panics and starts to follow the diet and exercise regime so kid loses weight, in the meantime goes running to the press with her victim mentailty.
The rest, is history.

[tagos]

@SanVito

They are, and have been, doing something. Nobosy has suggested that they’re so ‘hot to have the kid removed’, except, of course, the mother. The only reason this story got anywhere near the press is because the Mother called the Media in, which is another revealing thing about the mother. Social Services clearly can’t comment on this case so we’re getting a very jaundiced view of things.

I imagine the scenario goes something like this.
Kid starts to miss a lot of school.
Social services are called in the find out what’s going on.
Social services are appalled by state of child’s health.
Social Services advise mother of action she must take to restore health of child.
Mother is completely ineffectual.
Social services make repeated attempts to intervene and get mother off her arse and do something.
Mother whinges and whines and does nothing.
Boy still fat, unhealthy and missing school.
Social services, at end of tether, warn mother this cannot go on.
Mother says, ‘yeh, whatever, he’s my kid not yours’
Social services use last resort of ‘threatening’ that child ‘could’ be removed as mother refuses to do anything.
Mother finally panics and starts to follow the diet and exercise regime so kid loses weight, in the meantime goes running to the press with her victim mentailty.
The rest, is history.

That sounds about it. In the UK the Social Services can never comment on a case, not even to correct grotesque inaccuracies and downright lies, due to Confidentiality. In a recent prominent case of child abuse leading to death, of which I have very indirect knowledge, the media coverage of social services and social work actions in the case were so inaccurate and slanted you had to beleive they just invented their account to fit a preconceived story line.

[Malacandra]

@ENugent

He is in fact five feet tall, which gives him a BMI of 38.

Ignorance duly fought. Sounds like he could be something of a medical curiosity then - that’s phenomenally tall for an eight-year-old. Still’n’all, 200+ lbs on a five-foot frame is still shockingly overweight. I can’t believe it’s good for his still-growing bones, among other things.