Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Childhood Obesity and Foster Homes

If your the parent of a super obese child should your state have the right to remove your child and place him or her into a foster home,even if your a good and loving parent?
Seems the Journal of the American Medical Association says yes,they feel that putting children into foster care,in extreme cases,is better then obesity surgery.
Dr. David Ludwig,an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital in Boston says the point is not to blame the parent but rather act in the child's best interest and get them help for whatever reason their parents can't provide.
State interventions will support not just the child but the whole family with the goal of reuniting the child and family as soon as possible and may require instructions on parenting.
Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention,it may become sometimes necessary to protect a child.
O.K. now I don't know what your opinion is but the first thing that jumped into my mind,after reading this article in today's Telegram and Gazette,was "Nanny State".
This doctor talks as if taking a child out of a loving environment,temporarily,is like removing a cockier spaniel from its home as if there is no such thing as family dimensions or feelings involved.
How traumatic would a child feel to know they are being taken away from their home and placed in a strangers house because they can not control their eating.
True extreme obesity is not good,no three year old should way ninety pounds and no fourteen year old should weight five hundred pounds,but you know it wasn't that long ago that parents wanted chubby children because they believed it was healthy.
I understand that childhood diabetes,high blood pressure and breathing problems are not a good way to have a childhood but I also understand we live in sedentary,high calorie fast food world with junk thrown in our faces all the time through advertisements and easy access.
Poor nutrition and poor incomes go hand in hand since junk food is cheaper to buy then nutritious food.
But maybe we should be encouraging children to exercise and eat properly in our school systems,who by the way are some of the worst food offenses to begin with,proving how well the state and government can run a diet plan.
When town budgets get tight the first thing schools choose to get rid of is P.E.
When I went to grammar school we had recess three times a day and were encouraged to play ball and jump rope,as a matter of fact most of us did not want to come in when the bell rang for next period.
Many new schools are built with elaborate gymnasiums,sports fields and complexes,for the soul purpose of kids getting exercise,not just for the jocks and the school athletic teams,but for all the kids attending that school system.
We don't need to be disrupting children's lives we need to be encouraging classes on good eating,going outside,exercise and having fun.

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