Right or wrong? Should the government be able to forcibly remove a child from his or her home for obesity? Does the government know best? I happen to find this ridiculous. Even if the child’s mother let him eat whatever he wanted when he wanted, so what?
Absolutely ridiculous and a waste of resources that should be devoted to cases of actual abuse/neglect.
Let them take him, then if he doesn’t lose a significant amount of weight while in state custody, the head of the Department of Children and Family Services gets fired.
This is a tough one.
Going by what we know today, obesity in an eight-year-old is a major health risk. So for the mother to do little about it the authorities probably considerate that child abuse.
I guess you’d have to know more about the mother. What issues does she have?
Ordinarily caseworkers resort to forced removal in extreme cases, don’t they?
I don’t think there’s enough info to tell for sure but I can’t say I object entirely.
If the mother is truly ignoring the doctors instructions and putting her child at risk perhaps something needs to be done.
If she were withholding required medication from her child I doubt we’d even be discussing this.
Speaking as someone with relevant professional experience, authorities that consider this child abuse are fucking morons. I’ve seen pictures and heard testimony about things I’ll never forget. Including one parent that considered the red hot burner on an electric stove an appropriate means of imposing discipline. There are not enough case workers, foster homes, and other resources for real cases. We don’t need bullshit clogging up the system.
The link doesn’t give too many details, but apparently they’re treating it as a case of medical neglect. This puts it in the same catagory as, say, the Christian Scientists that refused to seek medical treatment for their child’s cancer. However, there is at least one important difference - in the case of child cancer, there was a clear and immediate danger to the child’s life. In a worst-case scenario like that, I could see some justification for the state to step in (although I still don’t like the idea very much). However, I don’t think a case of childhood obesity rises to that level of danger. The child is obviously at risk for health problems in the future, but there is no immediate danger. So I agree with the OP. The state is overreaching here.
SS
I can’t imagine the state will win its case. The standard seems to be “imminent medical risk”, and no one quoted in the (longer, original) story seemed to be willing to say that a 200 lbs 8 year old is in any sort of imminent risk. He’s simply at higher risk for developing various diseases in the future.
It is sort of an interesting question if obesity ever rises to the level of “imminent medical risk”. The article mentions one case where a 400 lbs 12 year old. I could believe at that level your starting to get to where your at risk for health problems acute enough to cause serious harm in the immediate future, rather then a few years down the line.
According to the article, the authorities worked with the mother for more than a year. So it’s not like they snatched the kid with no warning.
On one hand, this seems like a prime example of Nanny State-ism, and it’s not hard to imagine the slippery slope. On the other hand, 8-year-olds do not become that obese all on their own, and it’s not like the health risks are small or unknown. And the state has a vested interested here. If this kid does develop health problems due to his weight and his mother doesn’t have private insurance, then public resources will have to be devoted to his treatments. If he lives into adulthood, he could be unable to work. That’s simply not good for anyone involved.
So I’m torn, but not that much. Hopefully he was placed in the care of relatives, and they are better able to provide a healthier environment.
If we knew for sure there was no immediate danger I would agree but the article doesn’t clarify that.
If it’s just the doctor saying “you know, you might want to think about getting him on a diet” that’s completely different from “your kid has severe heart disease as well as diabetes and unbelievably high blood pressure - he’s gionna be dead in 5 years unless you take action.”
An eight-year-old child weighs two hundred pounds. That’s bigger than many adults. That is definitely severe obesity.
There’s definitely a problem here. Who gives him all the food?
Click through to the original article. It goes into more depth, and it doesn’t appear that there were any immediate health problems beyond sleep apnea, which was being treated.
Children don’t tend to overeat on their own. It’s possible the kid is under severe stress at home and is using eating as a coping mechanism.
Even if that’s not the case, letting a kid consume such large amounts of junk and at such a young age - I doubt he/she is eating home cooked meals - should be considered physical abuse.
I don’t know what the percentage is off the top of my head and I’m too lazy to check, but I’d venture to guess that maybe a quarter of all children in the U.S. are overweight and maybe 10% of them are obese. Is the government going to take these children away from their guardians? Unless the parents are are holding their child down and forcing them to eat, then they’re doing nothing worth losing their kids over. It may be poor parenting, but poor parenting within itself isn’t grounds for the state to send a kid to foster care (where they might not even be taken care of).
Ugh, this whole scenario makes me feel sick to my stomach. Let’s take this poor kid, who’s probably a stress eater to start with because his single mom is so busy working to make ends meet that he’s home alone a lot, eating. Yank him out of his home, put him in foster care, why don’t we? Because THAT’S not going to be stressful for the poor little guy. 
I’ve got an 8-year old nephew myself, and he’s a nice solid little guy, and he’s somewhere in the 60lb range. He’s maybe even a tad on the heavy side. 200 lbs is just unthinkable for an 8 year old! I can see where the social workers might feel like they need to make a stand here. (I can also see where the kid’s mom might think they were blowing smoke up her ass and defiantly ignore the warnings.) God, what an awful thing for a kid to have to go through.
On the other hand… now that the action has been taken, the best we can hope for is that the kid spends the next year or so learning new, healthy eating habits, and once his health improves, he is reunited with his mother. It might be for the best. We can only hope so.
I don’t know what the right answer is here. I hope this little guy comes out of it okay.
Wrong adjective…
Bullshit. How many cases of real physical abuse have you seen? I’m guessing not very many. Seriously abused children have brusies, scars and/or broken bones, not a weight problem.
No, the best we can hope for is that this utterly ridiculous decision is reversed on appeal, the CPS workers get fired or severely disciplined, and nothing remotely like this is ever considered again. Unlikely to happen, though.
This is child abuse. It’s not the worst case of child abuse ever, but it’s still child abuse. Even if the kid is a stress eater, there’s no way he got to 200 pounds behind his mom’s back. And the mother surely doesn’t realize that she’s abusing him, and that’s tragic, but that doesn’t change the fact.
EDIT:
So you’re saying if it doesn’t leave marks, it doesn’t count as real abuse? That’s the same argument that led to waterboarding not being considered torture. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now.
I don’t think we have nearly enough information, and we may not ever. The article says 12% of that state’s 3rd graders are morbidly obese, and this is the first time a kid has been removed from the home. It doesn’t sound like this will become routine so much as it sounds like there are details in this particular case and this particular mother that made the social workers say “we have to get this kid away from her.”
I’m more than willing to trust the social workers’ judgement on this one particular case, until there are more details.
I’m kinda on the side of CPS here. An 8 year old doesn’t get to 200 pounds overnight, and any parent who sits back and ignores such a thing happening in front of them is either in serious denial or simply doesn’t care. Either way, the kid isn’t being properly cared for, and is looking at a VERY early grave. I don’t see it as any different than CPS taking a kid away who is constantly found playing in traffic, despite multiple warnings that cars will eventually hit him. His health and safety are being neglected.
On the other hand, there ARE more serious and immediate cases of abuse out there. Still, this boy’s mother needs a wake up call.