[US] US state Removes obese boy from family

[feigning]

Contrary to popular belief social workers don't just swoop in and steal children away.

The family has obviously been notified previously and nothing has been done about the boy's weight.

They're slowly killing their child through neglect. Sometimes enough is enough and action needs to be taken if no agreements can be made.

I know that. I meant, it's going to be much less stress on the kid if he can still live with his family. I agree something needed to be done and in this case I don't really disagree with having removed him. I just feel there was probably another option that would be less painful for the child. I don't give a rats ass about the parents.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/838...in-foster-care


An eight-year-old American boy who weighs more than 90 kilograms has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight.

The Plain Dealer newspaper reports that the Cleveland boy is considered severely obese and at risk for such diseases as diabetes and hypertension.

The case is the first state officials can recall of a child being put in foster care strictly for a weight-related issue.

Lawyers for the mother say the county overreached when authorities took the boy last week. They say the medical problems he is at risk for do not yet pose an imminent danger.

A spokeswoman says the county removed the child because caseworkers saw his mother's inability to reduce his weight as medical neglect.


So.....does every obsese child need to removed these days?

90 kilo? Oh my god he weight more than I, I'm 18 and he's 8! God I hope they removed him from there, do you imagine how dangerous it would be for his health? Do you believe he'd lived an happy life? I don't have anything against the overweighted people. But he's 8 years old and 90 kilos. There's a real problem there and I highly doubt it's only of medical order.

[Sunseeker]

He is EIGHT and weighs MORE than many people do at age 50. I've seen kids like these and their families, kid wants candy? Gets candy. Kid wants a twinkie? gets a twinkie. Kid gets a cake? Gets a cake. This kid would likely be well into the 400's by the time he hits his teens and it's out of sheer lack of proper parenting which is risking the boy's life. It is not merely a "weight related issue", which makes it sound like they removed the kid because he wouldn't eat his vegetables. These parents are literally killing their child with poor nutrition.

The chances that a child of 8 has a medical problem to such an extreme that he weighs 200lbs is just ridiculous. Even if he had a MASSIVE problem it can still be managed with a proper diet and even if that wasn't perfect, he still wouldn't resemble a Goodyear blimp.

[Linry]

as a parent it is your job to make sure your child is safe and healthy! I got feed junk food rarely as a child, its not hard to feed your kids correctly. 200 pounds at 8 years old, is lazy parenting, give your kid fruit, stop giving your children candy, smaller portions of food! Its not hard.

[Twoflower]

Treats them right. I hope they will only see their child again after it turned 18.

Seriously. We should have a parenthood license just like for driving. Between mothers neglecting their children enugh to let it grow to 200 pounds and those idiots that tried to name their kid Adolf Hitler, I realy dont know if we shouldnt just grow the babies in tubes and have them grow up in homes. I am sure they would be less deranged than most of those poor kids we read about all the time.

[Catta]

as a parent it is your job to make sure your child is safe and healthy! I got feed junk food rarely as a child, its not hard to feed your kids correctly. 200 pounds at 8 years old, is lazy parenting, give your kid fruit, stop giving your children candy, smaller portions of food! Its not hard.

dont give him fruit, sew his mouth shut is more like it >_>

[Purlina]

Exercise would also help >.<

[Finn mac cool]

Meh it's not as bad as the religious nut jobs that let their kids die instead of using modern medicine. I think taking him away from his mother was a little much.

[karrad]

Yet congress can get away with declaring that the few ounces of tomato paste on pizza constitutes a serving of vegetables in order to cut spending.

[shise]

In my opinion, not everyone should have the right to have kids. It's like driving.. not everyone should be able to obtain a licence, but that's all a matter of buying it afterall....


But a kid... hell, not everyone is prepared to have a kid, and sometimes that can mean complications for that future person.

I don't know about this case, but it looks bad, even if he had health issues.

[Sava]

Maybe the child has a thyroid problem and the mother cant afford our overpriced health care...

still has to be taken away before the kid dies, don't you think?

Love from his mother won't save his ass, proper medical care and specialized help will.

[Ägallar]

It doesn't outright state it, but it sounds the authorities had their eyes on the case for some time already, and gave the mother the chance to improve her son's state, but she failed to do so.

This is what people tend to ignore. Being that I have close, personal experience with CPS (Child Protective Services), I know for a fact that before a child is removed from the home, the parents must have failed to meet a number of requirements which would have been given to them in advance of as many as 15 home visits (between the CPS worker and the family). It is only after the parents show an unwillingness to improve the living conditions for their children that the government will intervene and remove the child. It is a fallacy to believe that the government can just take kids without notice, if the kid isn't being abused/neglected.

That being said, if there is irrefutable evidence of sexual/physical abuse, the child can be removed immediately. But as that's not what's applicable to this case, that isn't the scenario I described.

[Chapina]

The mother should be held liable for the treatment and maintaining the health of her child. No one said having kids would be easy and it doesnt matter if she is ill-educated or not, she has a responsibility to do EVERYthing she can to keep her kid healthy. 200 pounds at 8 years old doesnt just happen. It would of been that way for some time if he weighs 200 pounds at 8 years old. The problem these days is the lack of parenting and too many peopel who dont care really about the parenting part, or who just want cute kids. Parenting is the biggest social skill that is deteriating in this country.

[Lazarusx]

If you look at articles in the state (not in australia...) they became aware of the issue a year earlier during a trip to the hospital to address breathing issues (specifically sleep apnea for which obesity can be one of the causes).

The only question now is what efforts did the state make besides and ultimatum before removing the child from his home. Statistics (take with a grain of salt) in one article suggest that 12% of third graders in Ohio are obese... what is the elementary school system doing to promote healthy eating? (smoking is hugely unpopular among my generation brainwashing in elementary school works!) Incidently the mother is a substitute elementry school teacher why are both she and her child aparently unexposed to proper eating.

[Jeleh]

Overweight adult male is 200 pounds to you lol? I mean yeah 200 pounds is ridiculous as a 8 years old. But thats not overweight for any male adult thats over 6 foot tall or more.

Your a little off on your numbers, bmi puts a male overweight at 200lbs up the the height of 6ft 2, considering the average height for a male is closer to 5ft 9, yes 200lbs is probably a good indication that someone is overweight with little else to go on.

I am still interested as to this mothers social status, what her education and upbringing was like. There is a serious failing in my opinion on schools when it comes to the development of individuals, especially here in the UK. Schools used to give you the tools needed to develop into a well rounded person, this included ample amounts of exercise and such.

These days it seems like schools pump out kids in an effort to get academic results, the kids are not taught anything about how to be a good person or a decent individual, they lack the knowledge of health and nutrition and that get's passed on to their children, blind leading the blind we get situations like this.

If your interested as to where i got the numbers from just do a quick Google search, the internet is an abundance of knowledge.

[Chapina]

People are just bad these days and most of you make excuses for being bad people. "As long as there is no medical condition" - there is no medical condition that would make a child weigh 200 pounds so stop trying to validate why the kid was taken away. The city and county probably moves at a pace slower than mollases so this is a issue that has probably stayed that weigh. I bet the kid eats fast food and junk at home. As a parent your responisbility to do waht you need to make sure that doesnt happen. I weigh 200 pounds but im 6'2 and pretty solid all the way around so for a 8 year to weigh that much is blatant abuse and neglect."health care might be too much" well dont go making babies unless you are willing to work however many jobs it takes to pay for the costs. you dont go in a restaurant and eat and then decide you dont have enough money.

[Sunseeker]

Your a little off on your numbers, bmi puts a male overweight at 200lbs up the the height of 6ft 2, considering the average height for a male is closer to 5ft 9, yes 200lbs is probably a good indication that someone is overweight with little else to go on.

More proof that BMI is a mathematical crock of shit. Any system that assumes we can know only two factors about a person(height and weight) and then determine if they are unhealthy(which is the meaning of overweight) is pathetically flawed. I mean, imagine if doctors used reasoning like the BMI: Well he has a broken arm and he's male, so he must have been in a fight! Or: She has cervical cancer and isn't married: she must be a whore!

Two numbers do not equal a person.

[bergmann620]

there's a professor who got fed up with that statement, so here you go:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/1...sor/index.html

What you forgot to mention is that he limited his caloric intake to 1800/day and took vitamin supplements.

If he just ate twinkies and doritos to fill up every day, he would have needed a wave tank to support his body's mass.

[Purlina]

I weigh 200 pounds but im 6'2 and pretty solid all the way around so for a 8 year to weigh that much is blatant abuse and neglect."health care might be too much" well dont go making babies unless you are willing to work however many jobs it takes to pay for the costs. you dont go in a restaurant and eat and then decide you dont have enough money.

No one gets to pick which medical conditions their children are born with. Even a family with a solid income can not afford to support certain medical costs / conditions.

(For example the costs for Autism treatments are not fully paid for by insurance companies)

I am not talking about this particular case though

[Deleted]

What you forgot to mention is that he limited his caloric intake to 1800/day and took vitamin supplements.

If he just ate twinkies and doritos to fill up every day, he would have needed a wave tank to support his body's mass.

He wanted to make a point that the most important factor in weight loss is calories in < calories out.

He made his point.