Severely obese kids and foster care...

[Aaron Lengel]

I am interested to see what people think about this. There was an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that discusses removing severely obese children from their homes due to the health risks of severe obesity (kids >99% for BMI). I can see the argument on both sides but didn't know what a community of not severely obese people would think.

WSJ blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/07/...their-parents/ = WSF

Or you can google it. Crazy to think about the ramifications though...

Aaron

[Matthew Swartz]

While I agree that obesity in children is 100% the parent's fault (whether you argue genetics or nurturing, it is still the parent's fault), foster care is not the answer.

[Christina Daley]

Originally Posted by Aaron Lengel

I am interested to see what people think about this. There was an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that discusses removing severely obese children from their homes due to the health risks of severe obesity (kids >99% for BMI). I can see the argument on both sides but didn't know what a community of not severely obese people would think.

WSJ blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/07/...their-parents/ = WSF

Or you can google it. Crazy to think about the ramifications though...

Aaron

Not a reason to remove. With all the kids really taken out for serious issues, our system is overtaxed and overworked as is.

Start teaching good nutrition in schools, and feeding better in schools. But you'd have to go through all the lobbyists in congress first and change the governments position on healthy.

[Ryan Shewchuk]

Well it definitely is child abuse. If the child were underfed and emaciated then no one would question it. If I let my child smoke, would that be OK? But overfeeding a child is. That is all.

[Lincoln Brigham]

There's an underlying false assumption that foster care is the fix for childhood obesity.

Yeah, I'm setting up a business called "Lincoln's Foster Care for Fat Adults" and putting the entire weight loss industry out of business.

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Originally Posted by Lincoln Brigham

There's an underlying false assumption that foster care is the fix for childhood obesity.

Exactly. Or for any other bad childhood situation, for that matter.

If a child's family situation is truly disastrous -- abuse, severe neglect, that sort of thing -- you can make a case that foster care is an improvement. I don't think poor nutrition and/or lack of exercise meet that standard.

Katherine

[Emily Mattes]

This would make sense if we did not have a foster care system that is profoundly broken. Outcomes for children in foster care are not that much better than children not in foster care, and in some cases can be worse.

[Christina Daley]

Originally Posted by Ryan Shewchuk

Well it definitely is child abuse. If the child were underfed and emaciated then no one would question it. If I let my child smoke, would that be OK? But overfeeding a child is. That is all.

I rarely see kids that are being overfed (deliberately overfeeding can be considered abuse possibly). Usually, they are eating the wrong kinds of foods.

I was a fat kid. My parents fed me cereal, hamburger helper, hot dogs, chips. I can't even remember what else. My sister ate the same things and was thin as a child.

[Ryan Shewchuk]

Originally Posted by Christina Daley

I rarely see kids that are being overfed (deliberately overfeeding can be considered abuse possibly). Usually, they are eating the wrong kinds of foods.

I was a fat kid. My parents fed me cereal, hamburger helper, hot dogs, chips. I can't even remember what else. My sister ate the same things and was thin as a child.

I didn't mean force feeding. Overfeeding would be too many calories for that child resulting in obesity. I was fat too, but then again so are my brothers. Giving a child so many excess calories on a consistent basis that it causes morbid obesity is abuse, intentional or not. And the foster kids I have seen aren't exactly not fat. The answer might be getting rid of dual income households so the parents have time and energy to cook at home and not eat the easy, and usually high calorie choice.

[Christina Daley]

Originally Posted by Ryan Shewchuk

I didn't mean force feeding. Overfeeding would be too many calories for that child resulting in obesity. I was fat too, but then again so are my brothers. Giving a child so many excess calories on a consistent basis that it causes morbid obesity is abuse, intentional or not. And the foster kids I have seen aren't exactly not fat. The answer might be getting rid of dual income households so the parents have time and energy to cook at home and not eat the easy, and usually high calorie choice.

That is an interesting solution.
But the kids I see that are usually pretty overweight tend to be in the poor/poverty family demographic, not necessarily dual in come homes.

But you are saying the foster kids you've seen aren't not fat = are fat.. so do you take the foster kids out of the foster familys? I'm a little confused.

I think the answer is more of getting lobbyists for corns/wheat out of congress and stop allowing the FDA or whoever allows for the use of colors/dyes/HFCS or other toxins that they need to find a place to use instead of dumping it.

A lot of times, I believe that it is simply financial or ignorance. I am a severely obese person now trying to lose and have struggled with weight my whole life. My child will not go through that. I'm educated on those issues, though I tend to make bad choices myself.. However, he eats very healthy, always has. He naturally gravitates towards meat/lower carb foods anyway.

We have to think more globally here. Children are growing bigger at a rapid rate. Every year we have more kids who are very overweight/obese.. That isn't JUST people just feeding their kids tons of calories. It starts at a very young age..

I didn't realize that until I had my son, but what is the purpose of "cereal". Its just mush that gets a child to train to swallow, etc. But he already knew how to do that, duh. We started straight on pureed veggies or fruits. I fed him ONE time that cereal crap, he hated it, and I didn't like the thought of starting his life at 4 months on empty filler calories. I threw the box away and fed him mushy bananas. He loved it.

My point is that this crap starts being ingrained in us as little kids. Even as an adult, I feel like I need to have a box of cereal in the house.. Why? My kid never freaking eats it, then I just end up eating it.

I guess I'm trying to say that I don't think you take kids who are loved and may be well treated by their parents out of those homes because the parents are dumb enough to think that having Mcdonalds every night for dinner (with their HEALTHY alternatives even) isn't a good dinner. My generation has grown up thinking that its ok or great to eat fast food everynight, cause we are just simply too busy with whatever to do the alternative. There are MUCH, MUCH worse things going on to our kids than eating bad food. And if you don't believe me, then get involved and become a CASA worker or get involved in Foster care.

Also... as if this isn't long enough, what standards do you think we'd be held to? As most of this forum is aware of, the Gov. does not advise meat, veggies, fruit.. they push grains and even insist that HFCS in moderation is good. So we'll put little kids on low fat diets (growing brains need lots of fat).. Welcome to the matrix.