Is there any evidence that childhood obesity is a health risk -- independent of a family history of heart disease?

Yes. Obesity is always a health risk.

Do we really believe that a foster parent will have more concern for the well-being of the child than a biological parent?

Read the article, not just the headline. The boy mentioned lives with his aunt, and the child has already lost more than 200 pounds.

Is there any evidence that anybody, especially a government appointed foster parent has the ability to slim down a super obese child?

Unless they starve them, then it would be considered child abuse as well.

Instead of removing the kids from the homes. Why not have parenting classes about nutrition and eating healthy foods, and teach the parents on what to feed to their kids and how to shop, but then again, all the fast-food joints have taken over our neighborhoods, so maybe it would be a better idea to start putting them out of business and shutting them down, or making them serve healthier foods to the consumers.

We need more grocery stores in the communities we live in. Not a bunch of fast-food places serving junk food and processed foods to your kids and families.

It's ok to eat at one of these places once a month, but kids and families are making them their daily food shops and it needs to be stopped.

We need to limit the amount of fast-food joints in our neighborhoods, or these places need to be forced to serve healthier foods to the people.

all the fast-food joints have taken over our neighborhoods, so maybe it would be a better idea to start putting them out of business and shutting them down, or making them serve healthier foods to the consumers.

Fast food doesn't make people fat, people make themselves fat.

How about states reinstate all the athletic clubs at schools that were done away with so the money could be used for computers? The lack of exercise because of the obsession with computers, the internet, smartphones and video games isn't helping anyone.

Yes by the way their is evidence a couple of foster parents help children slim down. One child was five and weighed two hundred pounds, by the way in answer to your health question he was a diabetic. The foster parents started feeding him fruits, veggies, lean mean etc. He started riding a bike, playing sports, etc and lost over a hundred pounds.

Parents need to be held accountable. It is absolutely no more expensive to feed a child good food then it is bad food. Have you priced potato chips, etc lately??

When a child is taken out of a biological parents home, usually it is because the parents or parent does not have the intelligence to know how to properly care for the child. Quite often the parent has been raised in the same kind of household.

The answer is to educate these parents about exercise and proper food to feed a child. Only then should a child be returned to their biological parent.

Boom, one anecdotal case is not proof of anything. We are talking here generally about whether it is a good idea to be removing children from their homes because they are obese. Actually the evidence indicates that being underweight is more of a health risk than being overweight, and the best evidence about being overweight has been ambiguous because there are both health benefits and risks to obesity.

If the child is morbidly obese and working with the parent(s) has not resulted in weight loss, foster care may be the only hope for the child.

Predatory marketing to children and lack of education in human nutrition are the biggest problems but neither issue can be addressed because it might hurt the profit margin of Monsanto.

No, we wont address the causes of obesity, what we will do is have a WAR on Obesity!!! We will criminalze being over weight while at the same time making it harder and harder to find healthy food.

"proud parent of a monsanto lab rat"

Yes they should.

Then we can have yet another example of how bloated government intent on sticking its nose into yet another part of our lives with its unfunded mandates and increased bureaucratic overhead can prove its ineptness at making decisions that affect our lives.

In a decade we can have yet another crop of children whose lives were ruined in an attempt to save them. It worked so well on the reservation for my American Indian ancestors that I fully support it being enacted for the rest of y'all.

And while net another useless social program gets cemented into being in a monolithic block of government agency that never goes away, ever swallowing more resources, causing yet more deficit, y'all will get to enjoy the continuing erosion of useful employment that could help parents have a better standard of living where they might get enough of an education to know not to let their children get into this state.

"Be careful what you ask for, for you may get lucky and receive it in full."

There can be arguments made for both sides on rather or not, in certain circumstances, obese children should be taken into foster care by the state.

With that said, the following 2 comments by you of:

"Is there any evidence that childhood obesity is a health risk -- independent of a family history of heart disease?"

"the best evidence about being overweight has been ambiguous because there are both health benefits and risks to obesity."

...almost gave me bloody knuckles from punching the table in frustration. Are you being serious here, or are you just trolling? We're not talking about little Timmy having a tummy because he sits around and plays too much Nintendo; these are kids who are 400+ pounds by the age of 13. You are seriously wondering if such children:

a) Have any potential future health risks

b) Might not be in trouble because there are "benefits" to obesity?

Are you frikking serious???

Is there any evidence that anybody, especially a government appointed foster parent has the ability to slim down a super obese child?

You mean other than the examples cited in the article I guess............

There are so many healthy less expensive ways to eat, there is no excuse for this. I have a row of fast food chains in my neighborhood and have yet to go to anyone of them in the five years I've been here...except for Chinese take out if you consider that fast food.

It really doesn't take that much to make home cooked healthy meals for the family.

A child doesn't become 400+ pounds over night. What were the parents thinking when their child was 200lbs then 250lbs then 350 lbs? Did they once stop and think maybe it's time to do something? Obviously not. When they become so heavy that it's affecting their health that to me is the same as child abuse. What' the difference between that and giving your 8 year old the keys to the car so he can take a ride around town?

I can't see how the parents really gave a damn about their child becoming morbidly obese. Why should they suddenly complain when the child is taken away from them?

If the family is putting these children in extreme health risk then the answer should by YES. It is no different than other form of mental or social disorders. The family needs to be educated... It should be approached as such...... not a punishment, but an education.

Dixie,

It seems anecdotal evidence always trumps scientific evidence in minds of the public. The truth is that sometimes foster care produces good outcomes. Cases can be produced for this. But it would be very difficult to demonstrate that across the spectrum that foster care produces a better outcomes for children than could have been produced by counseling and family intervention.

Maxwell,

I hope you don't hurt yourself, you might incur injuries that would burden the health system that the rest of us rely on (sarcasm).

Maxwell,

My comments are based on my reading of medical research. Medical research has indicated that there is a greater correlation of disease as the result of family medical history than there is to childhood obesity. And, medical research has shown that the effect of obesity on overall health is ambiguous. This is why I made these comments. Just because "everybody knows that obesity is a terrible problem that must be resolved" does not make it true.

I agree that it is better to live a healthier lifestyle, but lifestyle, happiness, and healthy living are personal choices, and do not warrant government intervention. What is the social need that is served by interfering in the personal lives of obese people. If America is to call itself a free country, then it must allow some choices to individuals.

expatdownunda - I'd agree with you if my healthcare and other insurance premiums weren't affected by the unhealthy decisions these 'free' people make. Don't make me pay for their diabetes and myriad of other obesity related conditions and they can eat all the donuts they want.

NFIL,

Obese people and smokers actually incur a lower lifetime cost of healthcare than healthy people do. Check out the following link:

www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050029

I can provide other scholarly articles and literature that make this point if you wish. The reason obese people incur fewer lifetime health expenses is that they live far shorter lives, and therefore do not incur those lifetime health maintenance costs. Most people incur substantial medical costs at the end of life, no matter what they die from.

Healthy people also receive more elective sports injury surgeries, and more elective cosmetic surgery. And this is only health care costs. Fewer obese people reach the age of 65, so they also do not collect as much from pensions or from social security. It is healthy people who cost more, not the smokers and the obese -- contrary to popular opinion.

Also NFIL,

Morbidly obese people are demonstrably less healthy than thin people are -- not true however for mildly obese people. (I realize that I am diverging a little bit off topic at this point) Medical research has been unable to demonstrate that mildly obese people are actually less healthy than thin people, in fact some medical research has indicated the opposite, that mildly obese people are actually healthier than thin people. Though I agree that this topic is highly debated, and the "jury is still out".

There is enormous evidence that foster care is one of the worst outcomes for a child. About the only thing worse than foster care is a violently abusive or sexual predator parent. Morbid obesity comes in all shapes and sizes and family relationshps are very complicated, including the ones that lead to morbidly obese children. The one-size-fits-all rip the child from the parent and give it to someone whose only interest is money the state money pays for taking the child is a travesty to the children. The article shows one much better alternative, a close relative assuming care of the child to change the environment.

If anyone thinks the state can regulate the weight of a little fat kid, they're dreaming. These kids and adults will sneak food any time they can. Just let evolution take it's course.

dirtydog200,

I am not as pessimistic as you are. What I am concerned about is the overall well-being of the child and family. There are things that we can do about obesity:

1. What happened to home economics classes in public schools. These classes taught nutrition, and family budgeting. They were regarded as sexist, so we got rid of them. What we should have done instead is make them mandatory for everybody in public schools.

2. Eating habits are formed as a family. We should not be treating just the child, but the family as a whole. In order to improve the health of the child, we should appeal to the love of the parent for the child and heal the entire family.

3. We should recognize that we are doing this for the overall health of society and for the well-being of the family. If we improve the health of the family this will not reduce health care costs, it will likely increase them, because more of the family members will live longer and healthier lives. The emphasis should not be on costs.

Only as the very last resort should a child be removed from a family. ACTIVITY is the answer. Play outside, run around, have fun! Educate the parents (who are probably obese as well). Reinstate fun phys ed in schools and after school programs. No special diets required. Unless there is a physical or mental problem, Kids who are active will naturally be the right weight. Removing a child puts more stress and anxiety on everyone which reinforces over eating.

Absolutely Craig, and get rid of televisions.

Evidence?

Clearly you have no basic understanding of the correlation between obesity and diabetes - let alone other health problems.

This in a country where child abuse in all of its forms is not only hidden, if its existence not totally denied, but justified?

The whole country needs to be on a diet AND treated for child abuse!

In many cases child abuse includes "not disciplining" the children.

AnIndividual,

Why is a persons health or weight anybody's business but their own?

I do genetics of type 2 diabetes (T2D) research, and YES obesity is indellibly linked to T2D. If you take a map of the US with different shades of colors for the obesity of a county/parish'es population (say darker colors representing a higher percentage of the population being obese), and overlay that with a map of T2D in this nation (again darker colors representing more instances of T2D among the population), you will find that the footprint of obesity on the map and the footprint of T2D on the map overlap each other almost perfectly.

Obesity isn't a glamor/popularity thing. It causes REAL health issues. The more overweight you are the worse the health issues. If you're not on here trolling and you really want to know the dangers of T2D, go to these web sites:

T2D complications

American Diabetes Association

Children who are morbidly obese are at a real risk for this disease, family history or not. To say that there is nothing wrong with being overweight is to be willfully ignorant of the health risks.

Man from Nantucket,

I agree that it is unhealthy to be obese and that it shortens lifespan. I agree that we should try to do something to help families fight obesity. I do not think it is a moral deficit to be obese. I do not believe it is "wrong" to be obese. I do not believe children should be removed from their families if they are obese. Because obesity is genetic, because obesity is linked to T2D, then the best solution is to support the entire family in their efforts to lose weight. In order to do this we will have to offer real solutions, not just platitudes, or worse, insults.

I do not know if you followed this link that I posted earlier:

www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050029

This is scholarly research that shows that lifetime health care costs are lower for obese people than for healthy people. This is because obese people die earlier. (This also lowers their burden on social security) This does not make it OK to be obese, but it does defeat the argument that punitive measures against obese people are justified because they are costing the rest of us a great deal of money. There is also medical research that says the same thing about smoking. If anything, healthy people should be subsidizing fat people and smokers because they reduce health care costs and are less of a burden on the social security system. I don't really believe that we should do this, but punitive measure against obese people and smokers are clearly not justified.

Sterilize everybody with T2D? We do not do that for hemophilia or any other genetic disease, so why with obesity. Obese people deserve our support, our respect as human beings, and our compassion. They do not deserve insults, ridicule, prejudice, and discrimination.

No, healthy food costs more because of ethanol subsidies. Converting corn into ethanol reduces the supply on a food that is already in extremely high demand. Get rid of the stupid ethanol subsidies and the price of corn and all foods will go down noticeably.

Healthy food does not always cost more. A lb of brown rice is $.84 at my supermarket. It makes a good healthy breakfast with a little milk for three kids for 3 days. Pinto beans, black beans, lentils are also inexpensive. If you buy fresh fruit and veggies in season and watch for the sales of frozen veggies then you can also save money. This takes more planning than going to McDonalds, but you can cook on weekends and warm up during the week. People are willing to wait overnight in lines at Best Buy to get a good deal on a flat screen tv, they should be willing to spend a little time providing healthy meals for their kids.

But my 650 pound 8-year-old wants Sugar Crisp and Fuity Pebbles, not rice. Beans? I'm not having a farting kid all day.

@wyo mom: you've made an excellent point!

Healthy food DOESN'T cost more money than junk food if a person actually puts the effort into making the meals. Yes, it seems easier to run through the drive-through or order take-out because dinner was forgotten. However, it's even easier and cheaper to simply plan your meals a little bit. Why not make an extra casserole and freeze it? Or put food in the slow cooker? Just a TINY BIT of effort can feed a family in a healthier and cheaper way than living on junk. My dad (a single parent working two to three jobs) kept our family of four fed this way from the time I was in 5th grade to when I graduated high school. And this was only three years ago, not "way back when."

In fact, healthy food is significantly cheaper than junk food. Even if you feed a kid off the dollar menu at McDonalds, I can make him a hearty vegetable soup that is negative calorie, full of nutrients, tastes good, and costs less per serving.

Of course, I'd have to buy whole veggies, chop them up and toss them in the crock pot before leaving for work. Easier to buy a Happy Meal even if it means reducing the child's lifespan by half.

This is child abuse and people who abuse their children should lose their parental rights. If you're too lazy to care for your child, you don't need a child. You don't have the right to destroy a human being just because you gave birth to him/her.

Morlack said:

No, healthy food costs more because of ethanol subsidies

Not to be blunt, but that's quite off. Junk food is made up mostly of corn, so if corn increases in price it mainly serves to make junk food more expensive, not healthy food more expensive in general.

Ethanol subsidies does not have the widespread influence you think it does.

Corn subsidies, on the other hand, have made corn products much cheaper, making corn a part of almost every bit of junk food.

Healthy food does not always cost more.

My point was not that healthy food is expensive, but rather that junk food is artificially cheaper.

Healthy food DOESN'T cost more money than junk food if a person actually puts the effort into making the meals.

Inexpensive healthy food consists of bare-bones meals, without meat. Since most people love meat, a rice-and-beans diet is a hard sell even though it is cheap and healthy.

Quinoa costs pennies per pound in South America, but over here the price is relatively steep.

Just a TINY BIT of effort can feed a family in a healthier and cheaper way than living on junk.

Switch the subsidies from junk food to healthy food and you don't need the "extra effort" to eat healthy.

"Why should junk be subsidized, but not healthy food?" is a question we need to ask our politicians.

It is very sad to see little children who weigh more than I do!! I, sorry to say, blame the parents, the mom to be exact!! Little johnny wants a dozen chocolate cookies and mom can't say NO to little Johnny!! Monitor what your children eat and the quanity that they eat!!!!

You need to rethink your logic. The reason healy food costs more is that it has more nutrition in it. You don't need to eat as much to get the necessary nutrients. On the other hand the body knows when it needs nutrients, and will remain hungry until those needs have been met. In the end the cost is the same, what is different is the number of empty calories.

You need to rethink your understanding of how the economy works.

Food is not priced according to nutrition.

Most things you eat are corn based these days......most meat is grain(corn)fed, which decreases it's nutritional value.

This corn-fed diet dramatically increases the growth of E. Coli. Switching from corn-fed diet to the food Cows' evolutionary diet, grasses, reduces E. Coli populations by 1000 times in only 5 days.

Ever wonder why we're always hearing about E. Coli outbreaks in meat?

It's high fructose corn syrup. It changes the chemicals in your brain that are supposed to activate that 'full' feeling. In fact it turns them off so you are always left feeling hungry. If you ate nothing but healthy food you find that you eat more rather than less. Why? Because there isn't false sugar in fruits and vegetables. That fake sugar is what keeps you going back for more. tonight we had a meal with meat, sweet potatoes, carrots, baked squash, shrimp ceviche and grapes. No one asked for dessert.

I think it's hard for us to get the right information because are elected officials are controlled by money. They use that money to control us and the more they find they can control us the more they want. We need to stop the subsidies. we need to impose term limits on officials - all officials. We need to end gerrymandering.

Unfortunately, I think I fall into this category. I'm not overweight, but I wouldn't exactly call myself in shape either. Moving from Nebraska to the more active state of Colorado has made it's point on my health. So, personal trainer and nutrition councilor here I come! I apologize for going off topic, but I don't think people realize that some skinny people aren't any more healthy than some over weight people.

Unhealthy people do not live as long, and therefore cost the healthcare system less. Because more die before 65, they collect less social security. If we are to base our reasoning on how much people are costing the system, then we should either be penalizing healthy people or subsidizing unhealthy people.

So removing kids from their parents will magically cure them of their ailments? Wow you must have stumbled upon a great healthcare solution!

Must be a throw-back to Hitlers policies. Zieg-Heil~

Obesity is also malnutrition. I'm a pediatric dietitian and we get CPS involved if kids are malnourished, period. If parents are trying, fine. But there is no excuse for a 400 lb 12 year old. Unless there is an underlying medical/genetic condition (prader-willi) that degree of obesity comes from neglect. Personally--all professional opinions aside--yes healthy food costs more. Yes it's a lot of work to prepare healthy meals and encourage physical activity. That's part of parenting. These are parts of life to be considered before having kids.

I don't eat fast food but I do know that healthy food doesn't cost more to bring into the home. Does anyone remember dried beans & the vast variety of them? Americans eat way too much meat in a single day, you can get protein other ways.

I remember watching a woman in the grocery store in the frozen food section piling 10 frozen pizzas in her cart and noticing that there wasn't anything of nutritional value in her cart, potato chips, cases of sodas, cookies.

Does anyone remember how to find their stove & know what to do with it other than look at it. People are no busier today than years ago. There have always been single mothers (working) but they didn't have the money to go to a fast food place. I mean really, how much does it cost to buy 4 burgers, 4 fries & 4 sodas? How much is a bucket of greasy chicken? I know it's cheaper to buy a chicken & cook it.

It's such a terrible situation to be in. On one hand you have the childs welfare to look after, is it better to remove an obese child from his home and family and draw attention to him/her? Or is it better to leave the child in a potentially dangerous situation that could have drastic consequences? Either way you are going to have people cry foul, however if the parents are given ample opportunity to bring the kids weight down and are incapable of doing it then yes, I believe the child should be removed. We would remove them if they didn't have any food, it stands to reason they should be removed if they get too much of it or not enough diet and exercise to allow them to be healthy. As someone else mentioned, medical and genetic conditions aside (the parents should be trying to do whatever they can for that anyways) there is no excuse for a 400 pound 12 year old kid. There are classes out there that teach you the best foods for your child as well as good games that allow them to run around and play. I truly hope removing obese children from parents doesn't have to become a common practice, and it should certainly be in the more extreme cases that such action is taken.

I admit it's Pandora's box.

Example: My best friend's daughter.

She always fought with her weight, but wasn't horribly obese. She had a child, divorced the father, gained a lot of weight, then married a man who is disgustingly fat--like these kids in this story. She immediately gained even more weight until she, too, is disgustingly fat, AND she encourages her son from the first marriage to become disgustingly fat. These people are all fat enough that I secretly wish they wouldn't sit on my furniture.

The whole family of pigs sat at the table with us and even after her son had eaten two or more helpings of everything, she was pushing more food on him. Here is this kid who is overweight, and mommy dearest is shoveling more down him even when he would have stopped.

It's particularly heartbreaking to me because I think the kid is special. He's very smart, creative, and also a kind, good-hearted child. She is destroying his chance for happiness or even longevity.

Should he be removed from her care?

I think when parents are making a concerted effort to change and help their children and change behaviors, then of course they should retain custody. It's a long process made longer by years of poor habits and obese children shouldn't be losing a lot of weight rapidly, anyways. It's when parents repeatedly miss/skip appointments, ignore health professionals, and aren't putting forth 100% to improve their children's health, that CPS should be considering removing the child from the home. Again, malnutrition goes both ways and is very serious and leads to tremendous health consequences that seriously endanger children.

I don't think it's as cut and dry as you want to make Inside Question. As Whysoserious has posted, if the parents are making an effort than shouldn't they be given a chance to help their child? I do believe it is a matter of each individual situation. There are parents out there, like the ones in Jerri's example, who are doing damage to their children. They may love their child, but allowing/forcing them to constantly overeat is abusive. This parent may need to lose their child for a while to understand the importance of providing a healthy diet. On the other hand you might have an obese child who's parent is trying, but they just don't know enough about nutrition or limits. Wouldn't it be better to offer this parent classes on nutrition and meal planning rather than just snatching the child out of the home, and separating an otherwise happy family?

I hate the excuses that parents will give. "I don't have time to cook healthy." or "It's too expensive" or "Fast food is more convenient." Growing up my Mom was a single parent with 3 children. She was also an accountant, so during tax season her time is limited. You know what? We didn't have fast food, soda, or sugary snacks. My mom made meals that would last a couple days or could be frozen and reheated. (like someone above mentioned) Maybe educating the parent is what needs to be attempted before we just go and tear families apart.

NO !!! What will you do? Make them wards of the State? Health education for parents and their obese children would be appropriate. The parents are probably obese, too. I don't want to see another big expensive government program.

Health education? Who pays for it? Insurance won't cover most appointments with dietitians. And health education is only beneficial when parents keep their appointments. Do you have any idea how many parents don't go to them? Ignore them? Ignore health professionals advice and information? We're not talking about removing every overweight child (god knows 75% of americans would lose their children) we're talking severe obesity that is causing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, high cholesterol, artery blockages. Parents who continue to endanger their children need to have a wake up call and realize it's unacceptable and their children need a chance at helping their health. If parents were starving their children, kids would be removed from custody so fast.

It will save money because the your weight as a child is a predictor of the cost of your lifetime healthcare, which is often paid for wholly or in part by tax-payers. Youth is the best time to address obesity. It only gets harder to fight the older you get.

And, let me tell you, nothing is going to make an obese child thin like taking him or her away from their parents and placing them in a foster home. Nothing will motivate an already insecure and likely picked on child to lose weight like crying himself to sleep at night because he misses his Mom and Dad.

So if someone was giving their kid benedryl every night to make them go to sleep, would you recommend leaving the child there to protect them from the stress of splitting the family? How about if the parent was giving the kid heroin? It's really no different. If a parent allows a child to be 500+ pounds at 14 then that parent is slowing killing that child. It's abuse, plain and simple. Where to draw the line is where it gets fuzzy. Personally, I'm of the opinion that each case should be obvious. It's similar to what Justice Potter said about hardcore porn so many years ago: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." When the kid can barely move, it's obvious.

This will disproportionately effect poor people. Unfortunately healthy food tends to be on the expensive side. Why in gods name do some people think the government is the fix all to everyday problems.

Fat children is no where comparable to giving a child drugs. One is done out of the instinctual urge to feed your children to avoid starvation the other is intentionally harmful. Could you imagine what starving children in Africa would think of this idea?

JimP, that is a completely ridiculous analogy. I was an obese child and my mother did everything short of taping my mouth shut to keep me from continuing to gain weight. I became very crafty when it came to sneaking food and overeating at school and when I was hanging out with my thinner friends.

Obesity is NOT a food problem. It's biological and psychological and sociological problem. Taking a terrified child away from his Mommy will only make matters worse.

The thing is, this is not talking about kids that a simply over weight. Its talking about kids that are VERY VERY over weight (super obese is the highest obesity classification). I'm sorry, but no kid is going to become super obese because they go to a friends house and have some pizza from time to time. It requires a large and steady flow of very bad foods... something the vast majority of kids will get nowhere but home.

Other then perhaps when there is a gentic issue, or a gland problem... its ALWAYS the parents fault when a kid is super obese. If you see that your 12 year old is 20, 30, 40 pounds over weight and is turning into a walking heart attack waiting to happen... you have a responsibility as a parent to do something about it. Even in your jokingly off point example, if a kid is getting fat from eating at a friends house its a parents job to tell said friends parent to knock it off... or stop letting the kid go to that friends house. Just because its not happening at the kids house, doesn't mean its not the parents job to stop it. You don't stop being a parent when your kid goes to a friends house. Again though, eating at a friends house will never be enough to make someone super obese....

I'm not big on government intervention myself. However, every single parent has a responsibility to act in the interest of their children. Letting them eat themselves into a early grave is no better then beating them ever day, and should be considered child abuse. When you turn 18 and decide you want to eat yourself to death, have at it and don't let anyone tell you different... but a parent has a duty to prevent their child from doing it.

You obviously weren't a heavy kid. I'll gladly give you my mother's email address if you'd like to discuss what you describe as her poor parenting skills.

I am 36-years-old and I have been heavy since the age of 5. My mother did everything short of taping my mouth shut to prevent me from gaining weight as a child. I did find ways to sneak food and I was very crafty about it. Childhood was a humiliating cycle of being tormented at school, followed by the a trip to the doctor for an equally humiliating lecture about food, followed by going home and sneaking the "healthy" snacks my mother purchased for me at the health food store. Snacks she got so I wouldn't feel too different from my thin brothers and sisters. The more they would lecture, the worse I would feel, the more I would sneak.

What I now know as an adult is that she had no control over my weight. I was going to be heavy and have a difficult relationship with food because that's part of who I am. Be it genetic or a personality flaw or a psychological problem, whatever, that's just who I am. I've been fighting it for 31 years and I can assure you it has NOTHING to do with my parenting. My mother did everything she could do. Taking me away from her would have added to an already complicated psychological situation for me. I can only imagine that sneaking food would have been a top priority in my new "safer" foster home.

The mere idea literally makes me sick.

They should of sent you to a shrink to deal with your "sneaking" issues.

I come from a family of obese people and was both an obese adult and child. What you're saying is a sweeping, broad, generalized lie and you know it.

I agree with you. People think these things and much more cannot happen here. They would be wrong.

Cathy --

"Granted they are not always perfect, but children thrive in imperfect environments."

While I do not dispute your general comments, the article specifically refers to extremely obese children. These children are not thriving. I'm not sure if foster care is the answer, but this a definitely an issue that needs to be dealt with.

My daughter is a nurse practitioner and is encountering this situation more and more often. Some parents are actually encouraging their boys to become "big" so they can play football when they grow up. She recently had to explain to parents that she could not sign their son's form for Pop Warner football because he was beyond the weight limit.

There's a lot to be said for parent education. Unfortunately the funding and logistics are constantly used as excuses to sidetrack issues that might really help solve problems.

My problem with removing obese kids to "help them" is who is going to "Help" them as adults when their eating is no longer controlled and the balloon back up?? The bottom line: once you again a significant amount of weight you are going to have trouble with the rest of your life. This is an addition problem that is not being treated as such......

Absolutely, GED Teacher!

I'm so sick of people complaining that healthy food is more expensive than junk food! It isn't! Beans and rice, frozen vegetables, fruit, corn meal, etc. - many of these things you can purchase in bulk at much, much cheaper rates than trying to feed a family frozen TV dinners and take-out. And, to make it even better, meals made of healthy items are more filling, so a person doesn't feel the need to eat as much, and are easy to make a bit extra for freezing. A bit of planning would leave even the most rushed parent time to make healthy, cheap meals.

People! Quit complaining and being lazy with your health!

This may or may not be true. Many obese children are actually being given healthy foods by their parents.

If parents are feeding their children properly and they are still obese then they have to get off the couch and get outside and participate in physical activity. Just walking is a good start.

I was obese child who was shopped for exclusively at health food stores and taken to a holistic doctor routinely as my mother searched endlessly for a cure. Obesity is NOT a food problem and it certainly isn't a parenting problem.

Explain how obesity isn't a food problem? Fat builds on the body because more is taken in than can be used for energy. Granted, there are other factors like depression and lack of exercise that increase the speed of gaining fat, but fat doesn't magically appear on someone's body. Look at the amount of crap people are shoving into their mouths. Most of it does nothing for them and is simply stored in vast quantities. All it takes is exercise to burn the fat, a healthy eating habit to prevent eating too much nutrients (making sure things are balanced), and a good attitude towards life to prevent super obesity. Obesity itself isn't too bad, but 400 pound 12 year olds is horrid. And even if someone shops exclusively at health food stores, it all comes down to how much you eat. Too much of a good thing is often bad. Healthy food has fat, we need a healthy amount, but if you eat 200 bars of health snacks with 1 gram of fat per bar, you still get 200 grams of fat shoved into your system. Don't you dare say that obesity isn't a food problem.

Obese people will find a way to eat. Obesity is either a physiological need to eat at all costs, a psychological problem caused by other life trauma, or a sociological response to peers and life pressures. It's not about the food. I have many skinny friends who eat nothing but garbage. They may not constantly crave food like a heavy person, but they eat complete crap.

I know lots of fat people who eat nothing but massive amounts of low fat foods and never lose a pound. The problem is NOT a food problem. We need to find the root cause (and I have no doubt there are many different types) of obesity and treat that problem. But just like a junkie will find a way to get drugs an obese person will find a way to eat. It is NOT bad parenting and certainly shouldn't be grounds to land an already damaged child in a very flawed foster care system.

Tell me, Chris Johnson, are you or have you ever been heavy? If not, don't you DARE say obesity is a food problem.

Tell me how obesity is anybody else's business, and how a person's obesity justifies government intervention, interference, or penalties?

Why are you people sooooooooooo obsessed about other peoples weight?

My mother tried her very best to control what I ate when I was a kid. I ran and played as much as the next kid, but I was extremely heavy by the age of 8. I would sneak food, beg an older sibling to buy me food I shouldn't have or eat when I was with friends.

My mother took me to doctor for advice and shopped at health food stores. She even threatened to padlock the cabinets at one point. As an adult, I can now assure you that she had no more control over my weight than she had control over my eye color. Obesity is so much more complex than that.

No obesity is not much more than that. From what you said, your mother tried, but you were sneaking food as a child, therefore obesity happened because you were sneaking food. Obesity is not as natural as people want you to think it is. Where else in nature does the fat and sick animals live long and fruitful lives? They don't, they're picked off first by predators

I completely agree. Read Gary Taubes.

Good Calories, Bad Calories by Taubes explains in detail what went wrong, when, and why$$$$
DeVany has been eating properly for well over 25 years, is now 74 with 9% body fat.
He REVERSED his wife and son`s type 2 25 years ago.
Type 2 is curable but big farma, the sick care industry, and YUM Brands don`t want you to know$$$

Since you are so certain of your parenting skills and so willing to tear families apart because of their dismal parenting skills, then you will be willing to take these children into your home and love them and care for them and feed them appropriately, right? And you will love them as if they are your own, right?

Everybody! Rattle your chains!

So what ARE you doing?

I was a similar big eating kid. As an adult I am not terribly overweight but I am food obsessed. I think it is somewhat genetic to be obsessed with food. I would beg my mom for extra snacks and food and would pig out at friend's homes etc. but I still never got more than 10 lbs. overweight because there just simply wasn't enough food! If a child in the home can't have sugary snacks, no one can make them available even if they don't have a weight problem. My mom didn't stock up on food and only made an appropriate amount of dinner. When she told me there was no more, I was done. I would sometimes cry and was then offered something like carrots or an apple. A normal kid really can't get too fat if the parents aren't keeping a stock of extra snacks in the home or serving too large portions of meals.

Yes, when a child reaches adolesence they have a little more control over their eating, but there is no excuse at all for a fat three year old.

That's not even a little bit true.

As for fat three-year-olds, my daughter is, according to the BMI scale, morbidly obese. Would you like to see a picture? http://elizajanesmith.blogspot.com/

There's my morbidly obese, enrolled in a childhood weight loss problem child. Comical, isn't it? When we told her grandparents they literally laughed at us.

You do know that obesity doesn't deal with just size right? There are skinny people with BMIs equal to ridiculously obese people. The reason is because of the percentage of body fat for the whole body. I'm 148 pounds and 6"1', I'm really light for my height and actually have problems with bones showing through my skin on my back, and I'm clinically obese, because I haven't been eating healthy or exercising these past few years. I recently altered my eating, work, social, and fitness habits to get back in shape, and though it'll take alot of work, in the end it'll be worth it. People don't exercise anymore. Everyone I know that is extremely obese and complains about it don't do crap, and all the people I know who are fit, not just skinny but fit, exercise constantly and eat balanced diets. It's about how much work you put into it. Some have to do more, some can do less.

As for the question, it's a definite yes. People claim that they sneak snacks and their parents had no control over it. When I was younger my dad taught me about how to be healthy and active and when I tried to slip through to snack out he'd find a way to punish me so that eventually I'd stop. No one teaches their kids anymore, they just expect them to do things. Activity, health, and good attitudes prevent obesity. Even people with disorders and conditions can prevent it, they just need to work harder. Stop complaining and do something. And these parents don't deserve their children if, and only if, they aren't doing anything to help the kids.

Chris Johnson, my sister, who is terrified that her kids will get fat like some others in her family, polices her children's food intake with a very heavy hand. Her daughter was pudgy as a small child (grew out of it as she grew tall), but she has been stashing hidden candy in her room for years. My other sister feels sorry for them and often sneaks them out for fast food. This was the same sister who would sneak me food when I was a kid.

If you weren't a fat kid, you have NO RIGHT to speak on this matter. As for my daugther's BMI, yes. She's a COMPLETELY NORMAL size for her age but she has never been lower than 90th percentile for weight. According to all charts, she is morbidly obese. Go look at her pictures. Would you seriously have her taken away from me?

This is what I am not understanding about everyone defending obesity, in your story how its not your fault, you make mention of sneaking food, or family members enabling them. I was a big kid growing up, but I put down the fork and ate in moderation, I just don't understand what is so complex about that. Also I'm 27 180 lbs and 6'0- 6'1 depending on the day, my BMI has me at overweight because that system is a little flawed, but the difference between morbidly obese and Super Obese is different, if you're a little chubby fine, if you have to buy a rascal scooter for your 8 yr old its child abuse