http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6883919.ece?fatterlink
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » The Newsroom
Social workers remove new-born baby from obese mother
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How sad and just how are the officials going to explain to the children why they were taken away from their parents? Oh sorry, your parents are fat, obese, whatever terminalogy they choose to use for them to raise you. Granted maybe the couple needs help and from the article, they did ask for assistance but for the government to decide how much they can weigh....just sad. The world is going in crazy circles right now, insurance companies won't insure babies because they are too big @ 4 months, too small @ 2 years, now this.
Posted 4 months ago by AZDEBRA 5/27 & crew #
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Metsa obesity is such an issue here in the US I have wondered if this would ever happen. But by the same token there are heroin addicts that have walked out of the hospital with their babies. As an obese person I would be devistated to have my child taken. I am equally disturbed with my weight and it is a constant battle. I'm glad the baby can go home with the parents. I hope that she will work to lose weight and become healthier.
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Glad to hear that the baby is going home with the parents.
Posted 4 months ago by AZDEBRA 5/27 & crew #
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There's a bit of fuss here over just that issue, SM. There was a little boy recently beaten to death by his mum's boyfriend, drug addicts. I suspect this might be an overrection because of the huge amounts of critisism they got in that case (Brandon Muir). I think the whole issue is very sad, with the obese parents. I'm glad they're getting the baby back. Despite their problems they seem to actually love their kids and want them back - why take children away from a loving home rather than help the parents as they wanted? Sigh.
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Sadly, they love their kids so much that they stuff them full of junk food, resulting in severe health issues at very young ages. Seriously obese children run the risk of cardiac arrest amongst a host of other illnesses and syndromes. On some level this is tantamount to child abuse, and that is how it is seen in the eyes of the social services. I can understand this, although it must be almost impossible for the parents to understand, particularly as lack of education is a huge factor in this kind of mal-nutrition. They could actually love their kids to death, without meaning to harm a hair on their bodies.
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No parents are perfect, and anyone could do unintentional harm to their children. The question is, is it the place of the state to decide who "might" harm their children and, on the basis of that decision, to split up families? Obesity is an obvious, and unpopular, condition. Other conditions are not so evident. I carry genes for psychiatric disorders. If I had given birth to a child, should DFACS have been at my bedside to take the child into foster care because I "might" pass along the disorder or because my parenting behavior "might" be compromised? What about parents who smoke? There is a lot of evidence indicating that breathing in someone else's tobacco smoke is harmful, and parental smoking is associated with specific health problems in children. So, should social services go round up all the children of smokers to protect them from their parents' nicotine addiction?
The state should have the power to remove children from families in which they are in clear danger from incompetent or malicious parents, not to set themselves up as medical prognosticators or lifestyle judges.
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I agree with you Leeny, and there is certainly a scary big brother element to this decision. The smoking thing is very relevant - I've often commented to friends who, like me, have no kids, that it should be necessary to have a license to raise offspring. But that's just a joke....
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When I was in college, Eleniki, parental licensure used to be discussed and debated often in our family and child development classes. Every discussion ended with the unanswerable question of who would be in charge of issuing the licenses. The potential for abuse is just too great. Discrimination and, in fact, indirect genocide could result from the refusal to issue parenting licenses to members of certain groups.
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There are so many factors to that issue. I agree that we have too much government in our lives, however if the parent is causing harm to the children someone has to have the authority to set in and help. It said that weight was not the only reason for removing the other 2 children, but stopped short of naming what the other issue were. Since we have so little information with regards to why were the other 2 children removed I will hold off my opinion. If the other issues will not effect the new baby, I would like to see the agency setup weekly visits to a nutritionlist, that way they can teach the parents about feeding their children healthy foods as well as check the welfare of the baby.
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And if the baby gets too heavy to qualify for health insurance in the United States, then they can take the child away. :-P
Just got a very interesting e-mail from The Weather Channel. They're sponsoring a "Wake Up With Al [Roker]" sweepstakes that one can enter for a daily chance to win a $100 gift card from Dunkin Donuts.
Didn't Roker undergo gastric bypass surgery? And now he's helping to promote Dunkin Donuts?
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I can say I have had gastric bypass. It almost killed me. I went from 400 pounds to 220 pounds now. I was a very skinny kid--until an accident when I was 19. I wore a size 3 in school. I was a dance major in college and tore my achilles tendon. I had the repairative surgery, but was never able to move the same again. I gained weight when I sank into depression--the first year I gained 200 pounds. I tried to diet--I had a very hard time moving. I am by no means a small lady like I used to be all those long years ago. I diet and exercise everyday. I move everyday. I dream of being able to dance again. My husband remembers the old me all those years ago. He says I am the same person. He still sees me thin--how could he? I have to say that he is the reason I did the bypass. I wanted to look like what he sees. I will never be small again. But I am a pretty good mother and very thankful that he sees me as beautiful as I used to be. I try very hard to eat healthy and move, but for the Grace of God it could have been me that had their child taken.
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