should parents of very fat children be jailed

If its child abuse to starve a child , isnt it child abuse to have a very fat child .
whose fault is it if a toddler is fat or a ten year old can only walk with a walking stick because its too fat if not the parents

We're very lily livered about this as a society. I have seen an obese child taken away from parents return to a normal body weight in a few months."


<LI>"I've seen a 10-year-old who could only walk a few yards with a walking stick. Her diet of chips and high fat food could firmly be laid at the parents door. I believe they were killing her slowly. "

<LI>"Seeing a 10 year old with diabetes and high blood pressure. He is at risk of heart disease in his 20s - the family will not make changes "

<LI>"One 12-year-old boy came into hospital to be put on a diet. His family were caught smuggling in 1lb bars of chocolate for him. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6749037.stm
what about vegans or veggies a while ago there was a advert that having meateating children was child abuse what are you thoughts on that

 

maybe it has something to do with jeans man and i aint talking levis .

 

It is child abuse though isnt it!!!
If you have a child who isnt fed much, covered in dirt, smells etc then we could assume its neglect.
if the kids stupidly fat and cant walk, cant run and cant live everyday life then we wouldnt think its child abuse but it is.
Its about time parents learnt to look after their children!

 

I think it's abuse. I was raised on fast food since the time I could swallow until I was old enough to know better, and I'm left of with t he consequences of that. Parents really need to consider and care more about what they are doing to their kids.

 

Over-feeding your child is something that can be done out of love combined with ignorance, so it's not simply a matter of the kind of neglect that would result in a child being starved, even though the result can be just as bad. The question is whether we would be willing to hold people criminally accountable for being ignorant...

 

I think they should be jailed. I mean ok say you are in a lift and a big fat kid gets in and youre going to the top floor. Well if the fat kid farts you are done for.
I also think the kid should get done and put inside for two years and the parents for life as they are eating all our resources - fat scum out, I say.
When I go to the swimming baths I hate it when some big fat 10 year old kid jumps in and all the water jumps out!
I always shout "Oy yer fat **** ! fuckin pack that in or I'll go round to yer house and force feed you with museli you big fuckin tub of arsehole lard !!! why dont you sell your fat arse to to africa and help some people fucking fight starvation"

that normally does the trick and soon when the ten fat kids squeeze themselves out of the pool it allows 200 normal kids to take their place. I am all for shaming them by making their clothes into tents that the homeless can sleep in

 

well we do for other things , I dont think ignorance is a defence in most cases of law

 

[that normally does the trick and soon when the ten fat kids squeeze themselves out of the pool it allows 200 normal kids to take their place. I am all for shaming them by making their clothes into tents that the homeless can sleep in[/QUOTE]


Aren't you the compassionate one. I don't think being overweight is the kids' fault. If they are fed the wrong foods growing up, that is the parents' fault. I don't know about putting the parents in jail but re-educating them and threatening them with the loss of the child if they don't change things might help. Yes genes have something to do with it but eating habits are more important.

BTW my perpetually skinny husband has worse smelling gas than any fat person I've come across.

 

yeah but I recon all that room in their big fat billious guts allows for 50 times more gas thats my point - jail them before one of em farts in a lift and kills ten people with an overdose of methane !!!

Also parents of fat kids always drive them chelsea tractors (4 wheel drive cruisers) because their kids legs are too weak to take the 5000 LBS monster on top of them. These slobby fat families should be made to go on treadmills so we can get rid of about 10 coal fired power stations - dont imprison them make them get thin on a treadmill that gives energy into the national grid -

also see if we can send their underwear to tentaid that makes tents for homeless 3rd worlders

 

i think it's stupidity and laziness combined with a desire to buy an easy smile from their child. i don't think they're evil, i just don't believe they have any idea really what they're doing. but sometimes it's not even that. my little brother is truly hyperactive. and he was just plain obese. my mother had NO IDEA how the fuck it could happen. she can't control what he's putting in his mouth ever second of the day. but our family doctor kept a very close eye on his health. it never stopped him from being a soccer and baseball all star, or from being a bodyboarding champ or racing bikes. then, all of the sudden this year he went form 5'3" to 6' tall. doesn't look obese now, that's for damned sure. he had an underactive thyroid, for real. amazing. my mom is so relieved, as are the rest of us.

i don't think that parents of obese children are any more to blame than parents of anorexic children. you cannot control every moment of a kids life. sometiems you need help with it. if an actual history of dietary abuse is found, then some serious steps need to be taken for the health of that child.

 

There are true physical reasons people have weight problems but the majority are just bad eating habits. There was a time when high fat, high calorie foods were good for us, like when we all worked out on the farm and did manual labor but life isn't like that anymore.

As for those who continue to build bad Karma by criticizing others, remember, there but for heaven go I. And next life time you will probably weigh 600 lbs and not be able to lose an ounce.

 

hahaha yea and I will own a mansion caled graceland, and my name will be Elvis.

Maybe if moms actually bothered to demonstrate against the food industry which has been pumping cattle with steroids in the USA for decades and are also doing that in Europe now. then we might get somewhere - how about if they stop pumping meat of all description full of water - the hydrate it to give it more bulk but this akso alters the constituency of the food - mostly its down to the disingenuous nature of the food industry that dont actually give a shit about consumer health its taste and size that matters to them
I still think they could all lose weight and be put to good use on some kind of national grid treadmill - they ate all the pies now let their sweat light up our skies - the adverts should say and have a picture of four hefty fat arsed wobbling jelly babies running on the treadmill

 

its hardly black & white. can you blame a parent for a child with anorexia? no! so why must it be a parents fault that a child is obese. eating disorders come in varying forms and there are grey areas to be examined too

 

In cases were its not to do with over active glands ex ex , it is child abuse, these children should be put in care or given to a more responcible member of there family to bring up, these parents who over feed a child, are putting there children in early graves.

 

i love how people seem to act like taking a child from their home and putting them in foster care will actually be a BETTER thing for them. how bout all the kids that then get abused both physical/mentally/and sexually while under foster care?

doctors still don't know how much genetics has to do with weight. we also don't know (like someone else mentioned) how much growth hormones in milk and such have contributed to larger children and thus also adults.

if you reckon that fat kids should be taken from their parents, then so should kids who are under-weight, anorexic, or bulemic. not to mention kids that are depressed, suicidal, etc as obviously that's all their parents fault too.

 

I think we need to be careful of going down the road of taking children away from the family home and making criminals for such actions. Lithium made a good point about ignorance and I would also argue a lack of real understanding of the potential dangers they are creating, not just the physical. There is also the point that when kids become old enough to make their own decisions then how can anyone be accountable but themselves, even if their parents were feeding them certain foods to begin with. This idea of criminalising parents for feeding their kids the wrong stuff and calling it neglect is scary.

Why is it that we as people should be deciding for others how to lead their lives. The argument about health should not even be considered, this institution is their for people to use. I'm not sticking up for being fat but people have the right, if in a supposedly free and democratic society, to make decisions for themselves, and I'd argue people have a right to be fat if they want. If they become so obese then they do become a burden and then action can be taken to support them to regain their independance, why is it the we have a knee jerk reaction to penalise and make misery for people, there are other ways of resolving issues other than the stick.

Why don't we begin by targeting the businesses responsible for these problems and how they market their products before we start kicking people down because they or their kids are relentless in their desire to meet their mates at Mcdonalds or others such places. Or the kids create such anxiety and stress that it is hard to fight against, then we are debating that these people are failures and should be dragged up to court, come on.

 

you make excellent points Mellowthyme. i do think things have improved in the past few years (but all be it only past few not much longer) for businesses/companies to be more responsible. which is why you don't see as many sweets adverts and fast food places have "healthy" options, etc. but even the few changes that have been made are so recent that the effects won't have been seen yet.

i too am not arguing that yes people should be obese or allow their children to be overweight, etc; but i don't think it is a black and white issue either.
and also, by the same token, again what of parents that don't force their children to eat when they should be? i know a woman in fact who's daughter is underweight, but come dinner time she doesn't actually tell her daughter to sit and eat but allows her to get up, run around, and then ends up throwing away over half her dinner most of the time. i know the woman herself (though she's overweight now) had spent most of her life on starvation diets so she'd be around the 8 stone range in weight, and in talking to her she see nothing wrong if her daughter (who is only 7 mind you) chooses to starve herself as well.
and personally, though children are more and more independent these days i don't feel any 7 yr old has the frame of mind to honestly choose how healthy/unhealthy they are going to be.

 

No, you're right there just isn't a right or wrong answer. The fact that her kid expresses this behaviour can become wearing on your freind, I'm sure she has all the love a mother could have for her child but it can be hard for her. But to make a law that criminalizes her for demonstrating parenting skills that aren't meeting the ten steps set out by government is a none starter for me. We have enough laws that will protect children from neglect, we don't need anymore oppressive action as proposed.

 

both my daughters are what the grids call underweight. neither of them are unhealthy or underactive. they both eat just fine. both sides of their family are very small, very thin people. in both cases me and dave are the exception. i can't stand how people look at them when they find out their ages and say "they're so tiny and so skinny!! don't they eat?!" if it's not one thing, it's another.

and americans are protesting with their dollars. most of us are choosing to go elsewhere with our money than that cattle industry bullshit.

 

As Don Juan said"when knowledge is desired,a teacher will appear".The knowledge concerning healthy ways to eat and live have been around for a long time.Prevention magazine started in the 30s--Mother Earth News in the 60s,ect.So if people can get past the tv bullshit,the teachers are available.Puts it on the parents to wake up.I understand,as a layman,how genes can affect weight,but does that mean a fat person wouldn't lose weight if deprived of shit food and was FORCED to eat only fruit and veggies?I think not.I have met a bunch of people for whom a change of diet and the resultant weight loss,made their diabetic symptoms disappear.Grownups should be able to jam their gullets with all the shit they want until they fucken' blow up--but --the kids--the kids are suffering because of their parents stupidity.Put the fat bastards in cages downtown so we can laugh at 'em,throw carrots, rutabagas ,apples and shit at 'em.Well---maybe not,but they need a LOUDER wake-up call.