Little Connor McCreaddie is only eight years old. Apparently he's a fairly normal child, except that he weighs a whopping 196 pounds. This raises some questions: how did he get this big? Where are his parents? How can we make him be less fat? THis is clearly abnormal; some children are a little heavy, but weighing 200 pounds at age eight is terribly unhealthy.
So the first question: How did he get this big? Apparently, Connor will not eat healthy foods such as apples or salad, because he does not like them and spits them out. He much prefers the delicious processed foods, which he gobbles down quite frequently, enough so to make him weigh four times the normal weight limit.
Where are his parents? His mother says she is not neglecting him, because if she was, he'd be skinny. She says he simply will not eat healthy food, and because of his size, he cannot exercise very well. She says she can't simply lock the refrigerator because she doesn't want to starve him.
This is a bad situation. Connor's health is in danger. He could die very young from a number of maladies or conditions associated with morbid obesity. And his mother does nothing. I say she is obviously negligent! Starving your child is negligent just as much as allowing them to eat whatever they like and get to be 150 pounds overweight. Why can she not discipline the boy? Why can she not simply refuse to buy him the processed food he likes? Eventually he will get hungry enough to eat healthy food. "Starving" him does not seem like a huge issue, at this point.
The social services in England have considered removing Connor from his mothers care. I have mixed feelings on this: it's never good to remove a child from their family, but at the same time his mother is clearly not able to care for him very well.
Your thoughts?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/26/obese.child.reut/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6396457.stm?ls
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Maybe they could send him to a (pardon my term) Fat Camp to teach him to be healthy, instead of just taking him away from his mother.
You are right. This woman is clearly negligent. I mean come on! How can you not resist your child's demands? She says she "can't lock up the frigerator" so do the next best thing: ONLY buy healthy foods for a time. Keep the whole family on a strict regiment, so this eight year old doesn't suffer as a result of the alternative.
1. Connor's mother is being negligent by allowing him to over-eat. Have some willpower, woman! He's not going to die if you ween him onto healthier foods.
2. Connor should not be removed from his mother's care, but a strict discipline should be used in their household - even if that means that someone has to be brought in to enforce it. It is proven that families that work together on goals achieve them easier. This is where people usually call Oprah or Dr. Phil. *shudder*
*Melanonia*
LOTS of parents can't resist their kids demands. Thats how we end up with so many effing little spoiled terrors.
I personally agree with you but I would not want to be the deciding factor on that. its kinda crazy tho
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I wouldn't say she's negligent because she obviously cares about him, since she's tried to get him to eat healthy.
She's just in denial. She doesn't want to lock the fridge? I would. She's not ready to take those steps and admit to herself that there is something wrong with her baby. She doesn't want to take the drastic measures becasue that means there is something really wrong.
I wouldn't take the child away from his mother because she isn't abusing him emotionally or physically or anything like that. It sounds like she just can't handle him and needs help. It's a situation that can be fixed, so why just yank the kid out of the home? That's always the solution and I think more effort needs to be placed on making the situation better before the kid is uprooted. That would probably be healthier for the kids, and benefitial to the parents as people.
The kid spits out his food? Not in my house. I would be punishing that kid left and right! When they are going through a "white foods only" phase or something like that that would be different. It's just a phase. But if a child refuses to eat *anything* healthy? There is a stubborn kid who knows what he's doing, and it's obviously not a phase if he's hit 200 lbs. There'd be some spanking going on and alot of "go to your room without dessert...oh you're gonna have your dessert no matter what? *drags kid to his room, and locks him in it*" time. And it would be a healthy dessert. Even if the kid will only eat junk food, there are ways to disguise healthy food. She could buy soy burgers...or make turkey burgers instead of hamburgers...She could get kettle cooked potato chips or make her own. She could buy sugar free stuff. If the kid is reading the packages, you go grocery shopping when he isn't home, and put the sugar free stuff in normal containers.
Oh yeah...I'd deal with this.