Most people would consider starving a child to be abusive, and a reason to remove that child from his or her parents. But a British mother
almost lost custody of her son this week for doing the opposite: feeding him too much. Eight-year-old Connor McCreaddie weighs nearly 200 pounds, and has trouble both with catching his breath after a little exertion and handling bullies at school. Child welfare officials have claimed that his mother refused to stop feeding him junk food, would not consider other measures like putting a lock on the refrigerator door, and missed meetings with nurses and nutritionists to develop a plan for Connor. Media reports have been unclear as to whether Connor might have a medical problem that caused his extreme weight gain, but it's pretty likely that his extreme weight gain will cause him medical problems. So authorities called a meeting to consider removing him from his home, claiming "Child abuse is not just about hitting your children or sexually abusing them, it is also about neglect." That
meeting took place today, and authorities have decided, for the moment, to try to continue working with the family, but the case has ignited debate in the U.K. -- over the
government taking too much power and responsibility, and over
parents not taking enough. To what degree should parents be held accountable for a child's health, and what degree of departure from the norm should be considered severe enough to earn the label of abuse and bring intervention? Does having a child who is severely overweight fit that standard? Pick an answer from the poll at right, and share your views in the comments.
I always thought that ‘abuse’ was to use your power over someone, actively. So physical abuse would be using your power to hit a kid, mental would be to use your power to psychologically harm a kid, etc.
If this mom shoveled food into her kid, refusing to stop, that is abuse. If this kid is going behind her back to raid the fridge, who is forcing him to do it?
I fully agree that he needs help. But if someone that young weighs that much, I sincerely doubt that he got that way just from eating poorly and inactivity – we don’t have kids that size littering our country and we *do* have people with those kinds of lifestyles. There is probably something wrong, and I can’t imagine that his mom hasn’t asked about it at every blessed well-baby checkup her child has had. How did he get to be 8 years old without medical intervention?
whoa! great topic….and I have lots to say.
First I blame the food industry for a society of overweight children. I also blame marketing tactics targetted at children. This needs to end to really make a difference in child obesity. (did you catch that…to make a difference…not end)
TV is the babysitter of many children and even if parents control what is seen on TV there are still the commercials that pull a child into problematic food choices. Kids watch it….they talk. It is a definite dominoe affect.
I blame the products made. It takes a lot of work to find a food item on the ingredient list of many food products found on the shelf. To make it worse, if there is real food actually included in the product, the price goes way up. It is often cheaper to buy food that has no real value than it is to buy food that has nutrition in it. Some families are limited in income and veggies and fruits are not always a choice that can be made.
We look at obesity in children. What is the first thing that many have in the morning for breakfast? Cereal, cereal bars, poptarts, wholegrain nutribars and squares. What are we doing? What is the first or second ingredient on the list for the food product? Sugar. Sugar is one of the worst ingredients to have first thing in the morning. Organs and glands go into overdrive trying to balance the body nutritionally. Children’s bodies have to work hard and not in a natural balance to find a way to use the poor nutrition they get early in the morning. Over years of poor choices things wear out. The body cannot produce the chemicals nor metabolize the food the way it is meant to. By the time many children are “tweens” their systems are so toxic or unbalanced the body is doing whatever it takes to make things work.
Some are lucky and get by. Others are sickened easily by germs, chemicals, etc. they are exposed to. Some become obese because the body cannot use what it is given so it tucks fats and other products away and if children are lucky they pass some out of the body or may metabolize the crap at some later time.
This is very basic. I believe that obesity in many children is a response to all the additives and chemicals that are slipped in to keep the food fresh, extend shelf life, and so on. It is also the sugar and fats added to entice a like for the product.
You can’t pronounce half of the ingredients that are found on the labels of many processed foods. If it looks like food, it may be food…real food.
I can’t believe that food markets are allowed to spray bacteria on foods…especially deli meats to keep them from spoiling as quickly.
And you ask if there is abuse or neglect when children are obese?????? Well.
And where does the abuse or neglect lie????????
I know that there are conditions that can cause a child to forage for food…anything that can be attained in any manner available. If it isn’t there house, it may a friends house, a store, etc.
Who knows but pointing a finger can go in many directions.
I understand there are medical problems out there that cause extreme weight gain, but that doesn’t excuse the mother for allowing her son to consume large quantities of junk food.
The mother is being uncooperative by not attending meetings or speaking with medical professionals.
Parents are responsible for what goes into their children’s mouth. You cannot expect an 8 year old to practice self-control or discipline. That is the parent’s job.
Did anyone else find it amusing that there was a McDonald’s Happy Meal ad next to this article?
Is it abusive to put a not-fat or slightly pudgy kid in a weight loss program? I was put in one when my BMI was only 21-22, and I developed a self-image as a fat person that I never shook off and eventually grew into.
People love blaming people for things they can’t necessarily fix. Currently obese people are the targets of scorn, and if the obese person is a child then the parents get a share of the blame.
couldn’t putting a slightly pudgy in on a weight loss program prevent obesity?
and if that child gets a complex about worrying aboout being obese… is it necessicarily a bad thing?
prevention SHOULD start when a child is showing the first signs. if not, woulnt it just be another lost cause?
i’m certianly not saying a child has to be rail thin, but as long as they are healthy in every respect it shouldn’t be abuse.
if i was starving my child you’d take him away from me. if the child was starving himself, you’d still take him away from me.
it’s about having the parenting skills to raise a child.
I see obesity in young children primarily as a parent’s responsibility – and think it would frequently classify at least as neglect, if not as abuse. After all, who buys the food that is in the house?
Whether there is a medical condition involved or not, obesity is the result of more calories being consumed than the body requires. If there is a metabolic disorder, managing the calorie balance may be very challenging, but it doesn’t look like any management was happening in this case.
If there are psychological causes behind it (resulting in the child sneaking food) I would think, as a minimum, it would be good parenting to take steps to stop or limit this.
Given that medical care is free in teh UK, it is hard to see what are the barriers to this mother pursuing every option to try to help her son – and the fact that she isn’t sadly indicates to me that perhaps she isn’t willing to make the effort. If she wasn’t making the effort to clean his clothes, send him to school with lunch, or was neglecting him in other ways, child services would be in in a flash!
The question of whether or not allowing a child to become obese is child abuse is interesting. If you believe that food marketing works, then you might accept that marketing high-sugar, non-nutritious food stuffs to children is, at least, a partial cause of childhood obesity. If a conspiracy existed to shorten the life span of a generation of Americans, then you might accept that one really good way to do that would be to give children premature hardening of the arteries, Type II diabetes, heart conditions, etc.– conditions connected to childhood obesity. Anyone engaging in this practice by overt or covert means, intentional or unintentional, would surely be considered a child abuser. So, perhaps it is insensitive or overly harsh to blame the mother who responds to the child’s pressure for these foods. It seems less harsh to suggest that those food marketers who are encouraging children to demonstrate a preference for food that is harmful to their health are engaging in a form of “institutional” child abuse.
I’m a 26 year old female who grew up without any knowledge of healthy and unhealthy food. I was always forced to finish what was put on my plate by my mother. We never threw anything out!
I became the fat child in my family and got made fun of in school and by my own sister for being overweight. I was incredibly self conscious because of this.
At the age of about 11 I started my first real diet of trying to starve and exercise. I didn’t really succeed at this because I was so young I think it made it harder. When I was going to high school from middle school I starved myself pretty good for that summer. I couldn’t go to high school being the fat girl I was all the years before. I lost a good amount of weight and finally got my first boyfriend who by the way ended up treating me like crap and cheating with skinny girls. I wasn’t skinny I was just a bit smaller and that wasn’t good enough obviously. My boyfriend would even make fun of me behind my back…. Nice guy…. He’s my ex for a reason.
After all this you think I would gain weight but no I struggled my entire high school life to lose weight being unsuccessful.
At the age of 20 I was living with a boyfriend had a full time job and a bad view of myself still. I finally began to get a grip on starving myself. How did I do this you ask? I turned to drugs… ecstacy to be exact because I always saw how my friends would not be able to eat after getting high. This was the first drug I tried and I was never the teenage drinker or partyer. So this was new to me. I immediately loved X. It makes you feel so amazing, like you’re on top of the world and the hottest person. Slowly the weight started to come off but not all the way. This was not good enough for me so I started to starve myself for days usually 4 at a time and then I’d eat 1 grilled cheese to hold me for another 4 days. If I ever caved and ate something besides my one allowance every 4 days I would throw it up. I lost 30 lbs and finally was skinny. I was 122 lbs and 5′4″ and I worked out everyday doing kickboxing and hours of cardio and weight training. All while not eating!
I loved my new body but it still wasn’t good enough… I now discovered cocaine because all my skinny friends got skinny this way so why not? This only helped me maintain I never lost more.
I never got addicted to any of the drugs thank god but I am still addicted to losing weight. I have since gained every pound back since stopping with the drugs and the starving and purging and consider starting again everyday. (not the drugs I’m so over that) It would be so easy to throw everything up or just not eat so when you ask the question is child obesity child abuse I say ABSOLUTELY! If you haven’t lived it don’t leave comments here because you have no clue what it’s like. I cry about what I look like on a regular basis and I’m usually around the 150’s that’s not horrible I know but the things I was taught as a growing child screwed me up. Every time I throw something away I feel incredible anxiety about it, I hate to waste food so I usually eat it. This may seem like a stupid problem to some but then why are we the fattest people in the world?? Look at our beautiful children, do we really want to hurt them? Teach them from day one by feeding them healthy things. You don’t have to talk about it like a crazy person just raise them to be healthy kids and being healthy adults will be natural. Feeding your kids unhealthy stuff is most definitely child abuse!!
Unless there is a medical condition (and I really doubt it-have you ever heard of a child who was fed next to nothing and ended up 200 pounds??)so the parents are the only one’s responsible for an 8 yr old’s diet. Unless this genius 8 year old has gotten himself a full time job to support his eating habits, he cannot buy this food himself can he?? it’s a no brainer!
It is absolutely child abuse. Who is supposed to be the responsible adult? The parent or the child?
It’s very convenient to blame the companies who produce and advertise such garbage, but ultimately, the responsibility falls to THE PARENT to make sure they child eats properly. Thus, the parent is to blame.
Simple economics teaches us that if people didn’t buy things, companies would not make them. That is the case here.
I strongly believe that it is considered abuse when the parent does not provide proper nutrition to their children. If starvation is considered abuse under child protective laws then so is over feeding or providing in proper nutrition and exercise. Not only does this contribute to health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, sleeping problems, asthma, and others but a lot of phsycological issues also. It has no reflect on food companies because parents can avoid food that is highly prossesed or has high levels of sugar. Like whole foods and organic foods. Or just simple vegatables and meat. But the responsibility is the parents and theres alone. A child is dependent on the parents because they can not provide for themselves. There is no excuse for obesity and parents should have consiquences for not providing their children with the proper and adequite needs of that child.
Obesity in children is usually a result of faulty parenting. Parents are supposed to provide proper nutrition and limitations. Parents are responsible for making sure their kids are healthy.
And I know for a fact that sometimes-obesity in children is the result of abuse. I’ve seen it. I have a morbidly obese sister with severe mental and emotional problems. I have seen her bully and manipulate her kids into eating when they aren’t hungry. Her tween and teen daughters all weigh close to 250 lbs. They are afraid to resist her, so when she says eat-they eat. Diabetes and heart disease run in our family-so my sister is endangering her children.
I tried calling CPS about it and basically got laughed off the phone. It’s time to see morbidly obese kids as abused and/or neglected kids because that’s what they are- unless they have a rare disease that causes weight gain.
I blame the fat kid and the parents. McDonalds and/or snack food manufaturers don’t force people to buy their products. In this day and age the information necessary to fight obesity is readily available. So blame everyone and everything that you want it will not change the personal responibilty that is not being used in this scenario. Maybe we should make a law to get people to change their eating habits. How about raising taxes? Yeah because that would solve freaking everything won’t it? Taxes to modify behavior …
The comparison above is incorrect.
Letting a child get obese is NOT like starving a child, it is more doing nothing for an anorexic child.
I definitely think this is child abuse! My husband grew up obese and he still has 2 morbidly obese sisters. Their Mother only showed them love through food and now the 2 girls are grown adults who are enormous. They have never been in intimate relationships, have terrible social skills and do no physical activity at all. Thankfully my husband lost the weight when he was still young which gave him more of a chance at a normal life. Now that we have 2 kids ourselves we make sure to provide plenty of healthy options to them at each meal and they are both right on target for their height. We live on a budget and see the commercials and products marketed to kids just like everyone else but guess what? I don’t buy them! Why would I buy all that poison for my kids to ingest? People don’t realize what the long term consequences are for these kids whose parents don’t give enough of a damn to provide them with proper nutrition. If you want your kids to end up in their late 20’s my like my sister in laws with no valuable relationships in their lives except with carbohydrates and depressed and miserable then go ahead and keep buying the junk. If not smarten up and think about your kids health! Also kudos to the government for intervening! This kid will be thankful to them for saving his life if he lobs off the weight before he reaches his teens. It’s a life he deserves and his parents obviously don’t want to provide him.
I too agree that overfeeding your children or improper nutritional choices fall under the child abuse catagory. I work in a grocery store and see everyday what parents are feeding their kids. These overweight moms leaning on their carts for support with their little porkchop offspring waddling behind while she piles all the fat and sugar she can into the cart. “Shame shame on you” I say to myself. How dare you inflict this on your child. Not only physically but also mentally abusing your kids so openly for the world to see. If you see someone smacking their kid or losing patience and barking at them abruptly people look at them like their monsters or will even call social services but if you see parents inflicting disease and social issues on their children to deal with on their own later in life it’s ignored and accepted. We’ll just keep forking out in our tax dollars to pay for the cost of these abusers. There should be warnings on food labels just as there are warnings on cigarette packages. Imagine seeing a 200lb preteen pictured on the front of a bag of Doritos. Oh my…thats not very nice to see, is it??
Of course this is a form of abuse. It is the same as if the parents had been sexually or physically abused themselves as children, and then did the same to their offspring. Inter-generational abuse, whether sexual, physical or feeding, must be stopped.
I am disgusted when I see fat parents waddling along in the street with their fat children. We wouldn’t turn a blind eye if the children were being physically or sexually abused in public, so why ignore this much bigger problem of abusive feeding?