How Far Are We Willing to Go to Fight Obesity?
Recently, an 8 year old boy was removed from his parents home and placed in foster care. The reason - he weighed over 200 pounds.
With the focus on obesity in America, it's not surprising that this has occurred. And it's not the first time that a child was removed from the parents' home and placed in foster care because the parents' apparent inability to control their child's weight was determined to be neglect.
In 2001, Anamarie Regino was put into foster care, and did not lose weight while there. She was eventually returned to her parents and was determined to have a genetic predisposition for obesity.
While I understand the concern for obese children (after all, obesity has been linked to many medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease), I question the decision made by the state to remove the child from the parents. Is he really better off in foster care?
It's estimated that between 16 and 33% of all kids are obese. It is not economically feasible to place all 2 million of these children in foster care. It's also unlikely that foster homes could be found for all of these children.
And the foster care system in America is not without issues. Many times the homes that the children are placed in are no better than the ones they are removed from. And in this particular case, there is no guarantee that a foster family will be any more successful at changing the child's eating behaviors than his parents are.
But what worries me the most about this decision is the precedence that it sets. If it's OK to take kids away from parents because of what they are being fed, what else will we decide is unacceptable in parenting?
And what's the difference between an obese child who isn't losing weight and a normal weight child who is fed exclusively fried foods? Neither is in imminent danger, but this case would set the precedence that potential future danger is grounds to remove children from their family homes.
And who determines the parents' neglect versus an actual medical issue as was the case with Anamarie?
Yes, we need to do something about the obesity problem across America, in children and adults alike. But is this the way to do it?
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