50 stone girl

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

Why is this on the news?

Is it news or freak show?

The fact that she managed to lose weight when she was in America suggests that it was, simply, an issue of being overfed

No, it suggests that she needs an expert team around her for an after care service, which didn't happen.

She must eat constantly to put that weight on, this isn't overeating/being over fed, there are other factors at play.

There have been cases of good parents scoring smack for their adult children, how hard would it be to refuse your child food? especially as her step dad is being treated for cancer, there is to much condemnation of the family, whoi believe have multiple problems.

She should have had a team around her and regular checks.

I think the reason why it's in the news is that she has been housebound for so long and her mother has been responsible for feeding her. In the article I read the mother said she estimated the daughter weighed 63 stone and that she made her lunch everyday consisting of a two loaf sandwich filled with meat, jam or cheese! However she'd switched from chip shop chips to home made for her dinner to try to help her stay healthy

Hold on. A team of nurses have been going in DAILY to wash and turn her. She has been bedridden for 6 months

How much weight has she put on since nhs have been sending people in daily?

And birds , is there actually the resources to keep helping? To help all the country with obesity?

Who paid for bootcamp in USA?
Who paid for the £250+ meal programme?
Who paid for the 40 strong team to get Georgia out?
Who pays for the wrecked house and new bungalow?

Who paid for USA bootcamp

She did, from the money that she made from all of her appearences on TV chat shows/media articles.

Taken from a trusted article,
"Georgia, by then 16, had planned to go back to the fat camp and lose more weight. But her parents' condition had worsened while she was away and she felt she had to stay at home. The counsellors offered her a place at their UK summer camp to make it easier but the local health board wouldn't pay for it. Rather than finish her treatment she resumed the role of carer"

From the start, as a child, she shouldn't have had to be a carer, as any child shouldn't.

We should be funding adult services better.

If we funded preventative/MH services better, it wouldn't have gotten to this stage. This has cost more than funding on going support for the family.

To help all the country with obesity?

We are talking about a very small number of people, regardless of what the media reports.

This should be treated as any other addiction and alloff the specialist doctors claim that the funding isn't being correctly targeted. They should be the one's to decide that, not NHS managers, from business backgrounds.

What we don't fund at source, costs more overall.

Who paid for the 40 strong team to get Georgia out?
Who pays for the wrecked house and new bungalow

See above point, it shouldn't have got this far.

The family are being awarded a bungalow because of the stepdads lung cancer and the mothers health condidtions.

Other articles state that Georgia was on FB daily and would shop online, so as it should be, was in charge of what she spent her money on, otherwise her mother would be under arrest for financial abuse/theft.

There just isn't the money though.

Obesity problems are increasing, why? Didn't have these problems in the 60's,70's etc..... How did mental health/ food issues present itself back when there was no fast food chains/takeaways etc?

I find it all quite interesting birds! As worrying as it all is

There just isn't the money though.

I don't know why you think that, because as is said, if we don't treat it at the start, it cost more over time. So by treating it, we save money.

The type of food easily available has changed our society and more evidence is coming to light about the effect of chemicals on our bodies/fat storage.

Addictions have always been around, there just changing and more out in the open.

Some of those counted in the obesity statisics have medical conditions and would not have survived, years ago. So all obesity is not through overeating.

There are various syndromes that adult services have never have to plan for, because in previous generations, the sufferers would not have lived past childhood. Obesity is a common factor in some conditions.

How can you treat it at the start?

How can you treat it at the start?

In this case, on starting school she was very heavy, investigations and questions should have been asked and in most LEA's now, the child would be put under a 'CAF'. So support would 'click in'.

There should be consistant bereavement services for children across the country.

Beter services for adults and especially disabled parents, so no child is 'caring' as such.

Better 'over eating' services/support.

In my region leisure passes for children have made a difference, as have other strategies, but these are now subject to cuts.

The pivotal point in this case was therefusal to fund help when she returned from the US, there needs to be long term planning for food addictions.

The 'system' now is different from the one that she grew up under,but is subject to cuts and still needs improvement.

Well the poor girl clearly hasn't had much of a life so far, let's hope this is a turning point for her.
However I'm a bit confused about the caring thing. On the one hand she is a carer for her parents, doing the shopping/cooking etc, (which presumably they managed to cope with while she was in America for months). On the other she couldn't have healthy food when she got home because her mother was too busy to make it for her, suggesting that she depended on her mother to care for her . It doesn't really add up.
Such a shame Georgia was put straight back into the same situation after her weight loss. It's hard enough to have will-power even with support, worse when the odds seem stacked against you. It reminds me of a programme I saw sometime last year about a lad who couldn't move out of bed and had to have surgery to cut great lumps of fat off him (after they'd had to get a special ambulance and have the floors and lifts in the ward strengthened). Even as he lay in the hospital bed his mum was phoning him to find out what he'd had for lunch! I couldn't believe it when he was just sent back home to his feeder mother.

I remember watching a programme about Georgia and her efforts to lose weight at the Fat Camp and the great results that were achieved. It was a genuinely moving programme and her personality emerged and I remember really rooting for her when she came back home. The grotesquery of saying her Mum gave her fish and chips as soon as she came home is just twaddle. They showed her making genuine efforts to remain on her diet - she was shown going out to eat with her friends and making the right choices - it was really encouraging.

But clearly something has gone very wrong. Her mother must have her own issues. It is just unbelievably sad. I really hope they are able to tackle her current health issues and that she can make a fresh start with some serious, day-to-day help (not just some poorly paid "carer" coming in to turn her over and wash her).

Obesity problems are increasing, why? Didn't have these problems in the 60's,70's etc..... How did mental health/ food issues present itself back when there was no fast food chains/takeaways etc?

But if you went to your Dr with depression then you would be given amphetamines - speed. One doctor has said that 'we didn't have obesity when we could prescribe speed'.

She really should have had more support at a younger age. As for the carer's allowance. She has been a carer for years, but a child cannot claim carer's allowance so she can have only been claiming it for a year - I don't begrudge her that.

I think an important reasons for the population as a whole being at a healthier weight, and obesity being much rarer in the 1960s and 1970s, were that:

a: food was relatively more expensive (supermarkets were only emerging, aggressive pricing had not begun),
b: much of the population had been on rationing, which continued into 50s, during their childhood and so had formed healthy eating habits because there just wasn't an alternative
c: no processed or fast foods
d: far less screen time (only 2-3 channels on telly, nothing on on the afternoon, no DVDs, consoles, computers etc)

Also, people didn't live with obesity, they died of the effects. That is what has changed, high blood pressure/colestrol can be controled, as can heart conditions.

I wouldn't get too excited about the carers allowance, it's knocked off income support or whatever anyways so if you're on benefits it's pretty pointless but does protect you from having to look for work. Tho I imagine she'd ave been on some Gorman of sickness benefit too.

On the other she couldn't have healthy food when she got home because her mother was too busy to make it for her

That was put about in certain newspapers, the reality was that her mother is unable to shop/cook because of her arthritis.

A care package was put in place when she was in the US and her stepdad didn't have lung cancer at the time. or wasn't yet diagnosed.

Georgia had her own income from her media apperances,it was her right to spend it on food, her mother would have had no right to withhold food or money, unless Georgia was found to lack mental capacity, which she didn't.

When Georgia didn't leave the house for 6 months, she was still communicating with the outside world via the internet.

But they were asking for help, if you read my earlier posts, the health trust refused to fund the plan put together for her.

The stress of being upset at being refused food could have killed her.

This is a reverse anorexic, this isn't as simple as some are making out, withdrawing food wouldn't be the answer, she could have phoned the police who would have told her mother she had no right to do that and probably threatened her with arrest.

Otherwise we could all keep our alcoholic relatives/friends trapped in a room until they are 'cured', but that wouldn't work either.

It is sad to read that not only did her family not support her attempts at healthy eating but neither did her friends. I really hope that now she gets all the support she needs. It is surprising that the health professionals caring for her didn't do anything sooner but then we don't know how long it takes to organise this type of intervention.

I think she should have been put in care. Whether it is their fault (wanting to keep her at home etc) or genuinely down to mental health problems, her mum and stepdad couldn't care for her. I know there have been news stories about this - the idea of taking obese children into care - has it actually happened?

I am reminded of a programme I saw about obese teens - one girl had one of those operations that leave you unable to eat anything but liquidised food in tiny amounts. The girl got home (in US I think) and her first meal was blitzed KFC.

It obviously started at a young age, for whatever reason - maybe unresolved grief at losing her father, I don't know - but a 7yo child cannot buy herself enough food to reach 9st without help from her mother - her mother is to blame for the early years' damage, whatever happened later.

I doubt that her case would happen now, in the same way, because the system is different.

But from a simple rights POV, you have the right to kill yourself by over eating, as with any addiction/dangerous past time, unless diagnosed with a sectionable MH condition, in which case the treatment is still a grey area.