How would you feel if your child was removed from your home and placed into foster care for being obese?
According to a group of health specialists in England and Ireland, some obese children should be removed from their homes.
There are 20 documented cases in the U.K. where obese children have been removed from their homes and there are sporadic cases of the same situation occurring in the U.S.
How is this justified?
Childhood obesity can be seen as a failure to adequately care for your children by failing to provide a healthy diet and sufficient activity, whether through direct neglect or more subtly through an inability to deny children the pleasures of energy dense fast food and television viewing, according to health experts.
The neglect that leads to obesity may be a sign of other problems in the home. As many as one-third of obese adults say they were sexually abused as children.
Some pediatricians and other professionals wonder if obese children would be better off in the custody of child protective services.
Failure to provide children with medical treatment for chronic diseases (asthma or epilepsy) can result in the government intervening and placing the child in foster care. If removing an obese child from their home prevents future health problems such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, is this justified?
Thoughts?
Valery Amador, Daily Venus Diva -- Daily Venus Diva.
It seems like this is a slippery slope to go down. Yes, there are health concerns to be considered. But what about second-hand smoke? That’s a health risk. And what about parents who keep wild, potentially dangerous animals such as snakes, alligators, chimps, etc? They could pose a danger to a child.
And then there is the whole issue of the effectiveness of foster care as an intervention. It hasn’t proven particularly successful in cases of physical or sexual abuse or neglect.
This makes me upset and very shocked. Just because a child is obese does not mean there is anything wrong with the family, what if it’s a condition that they have, or because their parents feed them good? What if the child is allergic to healthy food (not sure if likely) but there could be so many cases and for you to say a child can be put into foster care because they are obese? You would need a lot more than that, we need evidence!!!