Obesity = Child Abuse???

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http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/853 ... index.html

Mother May Lose Custody of Obese Boy

By COURTNEY FRENCH

LONDON - Authorities are considering taking an 8-year-old boy who weighs 218 pounds into protective custody unless his mother improves his diet, officials said Monday.

Social service officials will meet with family members Tuesday to discuss the health of Connor McCreaddie, who weighs more than three times the average for his age.

"The worst case would be Connor getting taken into care. He is well cared for," the boy's mother, Nicola McKeown, told ITV television.

A spokeswoman for health officials in Wallsend, North Tyneside, 300 miles north of London, said the hearing was part of a process that could eventually lead to Connor being taken into protective care. She declined to comment further.

The health agencies organizing the meeting said they "have been working with the family over a prolonged period of time and will continue to do so."

Officials would not say whether Connor suffered from a medical condition that led to his obesity, citing privacy issues.

An unidentified health official was quoted as telling The Sunday Times that taking custody of Connor would be a last resort, but said the family had repeatedly failed to attend appointments with nurses, nutritionists and social workers.

"Child abuse is not just about hitting your children or sexually abusing them, it is also about neglect," the official was quoted as saying.

Dr. Colin Waine, the director of the National Obesity Forum in Nottingham, England, called Connor's lifestyle "extremely dangerous," adding he is at risk of developing diabetes in his early teens, and cardiovascular and nervous system problems in his 20s.

"He's really at risk of dying by the time he's 30," Waine said.

Dr. Michael Markiewicz, a pediatrician, agreed.

"I'm not saying they can't care for him, but what they are doing is through the way they are treating him and feeding him, they are slowly killing him," he said.

Connor's case attracted national attention after his mother allowed an ITV News crew to film his day-to-day life over the course of a month.

Connor's mother said he steals and hides food, frustrating her efforts to help him. He eats double or triple what a normal seven-year-old would have, she said.

"If I didn't give him enough at teatime then he would just go on at us all night for snacks and stuff," she told ITV.

Connor, who lives with his mother and sister, has difficulty dressing and washing himself, misses school regularly because of poor health, and is targeted by bullies.

"People pick on us because of my weight. They call us fat. It makes us feel sick of the nutters always shouting at us," Connor told ITV.

I don't know that I agree that the child should be taken away. He'll just steal snacks at the foster home if he goes there. I think he (and his mom) need serious therapy and life skills training.

If that were my kid, I'd put locks on the pantry and the fridge for starters. I'd also put serious limits on the amount of money I give him, since it could end up being used to purchase food. Last of all, the mother claims that she can't get him to eat healthy food. So what! Let him go hungry for a meal. Eventually he'll become hungry enough to eat.

He also needs to start moving a little bit. Mom could take him to the park to feed pigeons or watch squirrels. That could be an excuse to make him walk from bench to bench or some other small increment. I knew a lady from Weight Watchers who lost nearly 200 lbs. At first she couldn't move to excersise, but she gradually walked half a block and back home. She was so embarrassed by her inability to make the walk that she would stop and use the excuse of watching squirrels when she got too tired. Eventually she was walking several miles a day.

If this were my kid, my house would be full of healthy snacks. I don't even think that I would have several days of groceries on hand so that he wouldn't steal. If I had to, I'd go to the market every day on my way home from work to buy the next day's meals and snacks. I wouldn't let my kid be in charge like this lady seems to.

That little boy is only 8 years old, and he weighs 218 pounds. I am 18 years old, and I weigh 153 pounds., and I am technically overweight. But that poor kid... At that age, to weigh as much as he does... It is complete and total child abuse. Both mother and child need years of therapy to fix that problem.

I'm not going to disclose my weight, but I am pretty overweight. I weigh less than the kid, too.

The kid indicated in his comments that his parents are fat, too. He needs to be evaluated--he could have Praader-Willi Syndrome, and that needs to be ruled out. If he does have the syndrome, it will take professional help to help him lose weight anyway, and he will have a lifetime of frustration dealing with the syndrome--he will always be at risk of binging behavior and obesity.

The family needs help, but they don't seem to want it. It doesn't say how old the parents are, or socio-economic level either, as that would explain their attitude.

He may need to be put in a special foster home to help his health.

Metta, Rjaye.

Rant:

1 He doesn't like fruit or vegetables. Tough s**t - do you WANT to die?
2 His grandmother apparently couldn't cope with him being taken away. Selfishness - want him all to yourself, dead by ten?
3 He loses his breath WALKING to school. Enough said.

They don't even ACKNOWLEDGE that it could be, let alone perceived as, child abuse. Taking him away would be the best thing for him.

I usually do not like unnecessarily intervening in things, however, I think that taking him away or threatening to do so could be justifiable. Given his strong tendency to eat I think that whether or whatever eating disorder he has needs to be looked at first. 218 at 8 though is rather heavy.

Yea, I heard his mom claim that his family has a history of "intolerance" to fruits and veggies. What the hell does that mean? Does it make 'em fart? If so, they aren't the first people to fart as a result of very rapidly introducing much-needed fruits and veggies into the diet.

Gimme a break...

I'm reminded of this medical mystery program on Discovery Channel in which a lady ate very little and exercise constantly but gain lots of weight. The doctors called her a liar basically and hinted she was eating too much. Turns out it was the rare disease
Addison's disease. Which made her body make high levels of cortisol. When treated for that she lost a lot of weight.

My guess there is a better than 50% chance this is not abuse by the parents but abuse by the NHS in the UK. Socialist health service save money by not screening for rare diseases. In the US a large percent of doctor practise defensive medicine and do lots of screening to avoid law suites. In the case of the lady her records indicated high levels of cortisol but her early doctors did not make the correlation with her weight gain.

TheMachine1: I agree that there are quite a few medical disorders that could be the cause of his obesity. I did see a list of his daily dietary habits on (I think) MSN. Anyway, there was no doubt that he and his family making some extremely poor decisions about food, both in type and amount eaten. He still could have a disease causing him to binge (such as Prader-Willi like Rjaye pointed out).

Anyway, the family hasn't even been showing up to meetings with nurses and nutritionists that Child Services has set up so I don't think that the NHS is failing them. If they actually tried to use the NHS or cooperate with the resources that the NHS has tried to give them so far, I'd be a bit more sympathetic.

Same situation as the lady with Addison's disease the doctor told the lady something to the effect if he was there making sure she did not over eat she would loose weight.
Naturally the women lost faith in the doctor. My guess the parent's biggest sin is not being rich enough to afford private health care for a second opinion( well maybe they could afford it if they were not being tax so heavily).

Yes, but at least she showed up for the dr's appointment.

I'm not saying that it's impossible for a dr to be wrong - I'm saying that I have little sympathy for them because they haven't bothered to keep the appointments that they already have. I think the MSN article did say that the mother and grandmother are trying to get him to be seen at some top UK children's hospital but won't take the necessary first steps to have him seen locally.

Seriously, if I get the stomach flu, I am not going to immediately demand that I be seen by the best team of gastroenterologists at George Washington University medical center. I'll start with my family practice doc in Sandy, UT. Their course of action just doesn't make sense...

I have to wonder if there isn't a problem with the kid's biochemistry. Eight years old and over 200 pounds? First thing I'd check is to see if there isn't some kind of medical condition that might be a contributing factor. Example, I know someone who used to weigh more than 400 pounds and couldn't lose weight no matter what he did. His doctor finally sent him to an endocrinologist (or some such specialist), who discovered that he had some kind of glandular problem. The doctor put him on some meds to correct the problem, and the weight started coming off.

Typical socialist healthcare systems to cut cost will look at the most common causes of problems only. In the US if you got the money you can goto as many doctors you want. In the case of the women I mentioned she went to a very large number of doctors. Also in the US you can sue the doctors that give you improper care. In
socialist system you do not have that option. The system likely failed this family and now the system is going after the family to cover its tracks.

a common attitude of doctors (IMO correct most of the time) is summed up by one who said "no fat people came out of Changi"

(if you don't know, Changi was a WW2 Japanese POW camp)

I've seen this story on television and thought how could Obesity be seen as Child Abuse? Honestly, I felt that the mother was somewhat neglectful in not teaching her son to be more responsible when it comes to eating but, that should not been seen as abuse. Well, I suppose these days Obesity has become so rampant , I guess that somehow the parent's are now looked at for the blame/cause. Personally, I'm a tadbit over my weight limit but, I'm not no Sumo wrestler therefore, I've taken steps to help remove the extra weight in get back in a responsible shape hence, no one could blame my parents for this as I take accountability of my condition.

That is my assessment of this post anyways.