Parents of obese child arrested

[WildThong]

I'm not sure what I think of this. It seems they are 'known' to social services and have had previous contact about this. It must be awful for the child. For the school and doctors to have contacted social services again they must have been very concerned.
here

[Deverethemuzzler]

If the parents signed a voluntary plan I am assuming that was under sec 17 which is a Child in Need plan (if I am wrong, happy to be corrected). It is voluntary but it can be escalated at any point if parents refuse to comply and there is sufficient evidence that a child is at risk.

The fact that were on the CIN plan suggests that an awful lot of work has been done with this family to prevent things going further.

I know families with hugely obese children and the honestly, genuinely cannot see it.

One child's mother would say 'the whole family are big' but I used to see her give her 4 year old a whole packet of chocolate biscuits as a daily snack. It would only take that one habit to cause obesity but that was just one example of what she was feeding her child.

She just couldn't see it. She was not a terrible person and such a brilliant parent in every other aspect.

Food is complicated. If it wasn't there would be no fat people and no eating disorders.

[TucsonGirl]

I honestly don't think there is a solution to it either. Maybe really hammer the point home via TV ads and warning labels like with cigarettes. But it's hard to do it without demonising overweight people. And while people don't have to smoke, they do have to eat.

[MrsWinnibago]

Oh it's too bloody sad. Poor little lad!

[MrsWinnibago]

I do think the government and retailers have played a huge part in this epidemic.

The vast amounts of cheap, processed foods available in places like Iceland have to take some blame.

I'm not saying that individuals are completely blameless of course...I live on a very tight budget and could be as tempted as the next person to spend my last fiver on three or four £1.00 pizzas, a bag of frozen chips and some ice cream...but I don't...that's only because I know how to cook good food which tastes nice and costs almost nothing.

But it costs money to build a store cupboard full of herbs and spices...and someone to teach how to make a lovely vegetable curry....not everyone has that knowledge do they?

Also, it can't be ignored...the fact that living on the fringes of poverty can be bloody depressing and some people take a bit of comfort in a pint of icecream for a quid and a 6 pack of crisps...also a quid.

Education needs to begin again and from what I've heard about cooking in schools it's bloody awful and needs fixing.

[lljkk]

Lots of people have junk diets & don't get so morbidly obese.

[KERALA1]

We were at the circus the other day - a free event. Looking around about a third of the other families were over weight. Really struck me people in general are so much fatter than they used to be it's now the norm. Saw an interesting documentary "the men who made us fat" worth watching

[meditrina]

Perhaps there should be a Cookery and Nutrition course in schools?

Not food technology.

[fuzzpig]

So sad, poor boy :(

[meditrina]

Pixel and ouryve

Did you see AuntieStella's post 10 mintues after her first?

The confusion was, I think, The Sun using straight (adult) BMI (which gives one figure which would be in the 'unproblematic' category in usual child health surveillance as it is BMI centile used for that).

AS rewoked it on on the scale for children as used in the national survey, and in her second post said it comes out at 99th (the highest possible) and she added that this weigh would in itself (regardless of BMI) trigger action in a child before late teens.

She didn't say there was no problem here (clear if you read both posts) and I hope the thread is not going to descend into nitpicking.

[Sirzy]

Meditrina - I agree that is needed, teaching children to cook proper balanced meals from a young age may go some way to helping the next generation to fight away from the obesity problem. It would also need to be accompanied with teaching children how to meal plan/budget.

[meditrina]

What else went in to the old Home Economics course?

Because if both sexes did such a course, it might be very useful. The snag would be timetabling - food tech is part of D&T isn't it? And a lot of it isn't domestic cookery and meal planning. So perhaps it wouldn't be as easy to accommodate into a timetable as I first thought.

[angelos02]

If a child was excessively underweight, no-one would bat an eyelid at the parents being arrested. Also, I don't buy into this 'fat due to genetics' rubbish. If a parent makes bad food choices for themselves, they are going to do the same for their child.

[DontPutMeDownForCardio]

I hope the poor child gets the help they need.

[rainbowfeet]

I think it was in the best interests of this boys health to have been removed from his family... I would imagine they've got into a pattern where by food makes them all happy & brings them together as a family. Big meals & lots of snacking in front of the TV, I don't think the parents should be demonised but educated with the hope that they can move on as a slimmer healthier family, if not once the boy is returned to them he will gain weight again.

I remember the story of the young girl from Wales who went to an American 'fat camp' lost a huge amount of weight, came back with confidence & hope & her mother gave her Fish & chips as her 1st meal!!! Needless to say she gained even more weight!!

Killing with kindness is a phrase often used.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

There is obviously much more to it and the media have twisted it to be about weight.

For a start the boy has SN.

My DD has SN and compulsively eats. Have just had to buy a fridge lock and cupboard locks as she will wrestle me to get food.

I am fortunate she is very slim. I do give her lots of fruit and low fat stuff but I can imagine some people may struggle with the concept of freding less. It must be hard dealing with a 15 stone 11 year old.

Yes..get healthy food in..although some people need educating on what is healthy..but this is by no means a simple issue.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

And I am not surmising he has SN..an article says it.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Id imagine they are struggling with more than just his diet tbh.

I find a 4 stone compulsive eating relatively rasy going 7.5 year old very hard going so a 15 atone 11 year old would be very challenging if he had behavioural issues. The weight is a red herring

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Excuse typos. Said 7 year old is raiding for food

[Deverethemuzzler]

Didn't know he had SN.
That makes it even more complex.

SS have zero knowledge of SN.

One of the things they get very het up about is lack of food in the house and the sight of a locked kitchen would cause a full scale attack of the vapours.

Which is why so many parents of children with SN are very wary of SS.

[WildThong]

I'm not sure though that the child being autistic is causing him to be obese, the parents have been saying different excuses/reasons for his weight and haven't even mentioned this. Given his special school reported it, surely they would be in a position to see if the fatness is caused by issues relating to SN or just poor parenting?
Also in the article it's obvious the mum and dad are also fat so I would tend to think it is a eating problem rather than a SN problem.

[Deverethemuzzler]

I doubt it.
My son is autistic and obsessed with food.
We have to lock it up.
The school doesn't believe us because 'he doesn't do it at school'.
Ignoring the fact that food is locked in the kitchen at school anyway.
They have also commented on how helpful he is. He likes to assist the less mobile children at lunch time, carrying their food to the table for them

They have ignored this huge issue to such an extent that someone gave him the money to buy a raffle ticket even though I had purposely not given him money for it because the prize was HUGE chocolate cake.
Which he won.
Which he ate in one go before we had time to get rid of the fucking thing.

My son is not obese yet. This is probably down to his hyperactivity.
He has a decent diet otherwise.

If we didn't stay on the ball and he was less mobile he would be enormous.

It is likely that this family are not managing this child's diet as well as they should but don't underestimate the impact that his ASD would have on this situation.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Parents may well have mentioned it but it has been left out in interests of skewing story to cause most outrage.

[LadyIsabellaWrotham]

The fact that the underlying problem may (or may not) be autism doesn't make weight a red herring though - this child is becoming physically disabled and his health is being wrecked. It's as if my child was a bolter, and kept dashing across a dual carriageway but I just said "oh he's so highsprited, and I don't approve of reins on children". Regardless of the underlying cause, this is a life or death issue.

[Sirzy]

The things is though the parents on this thread who have children with issues with food have identified their is an issue and are doing everything within their capability to cope with the issue and to ensure their children still get a healthy balanced diet (as much as possible) and don't develop weight problems at a young age. From the media quotes as to what the parents have supposedly said it seems they may be unwilling to accept their is an issue, or for whatever reason don't see their is an issue. It also appears (again based only upon the media reports) they have been offered support but haven't stuck to what was put in place. The reasons for that we will never know, but that does to an extent separate the issue because whatever the additional needs are it seems they are unwilling/unable to care for him adequately in a nutrition/exercise POV so unfortunately there does come a point where others need to step in and take control of the situation, as hard as that may be, in order to protect this young boy and his future.

Hopefully the police involvement will be the wake up call needed for the whole family to accept that changes need to be made and to work with support agencies to begin to make changes to improve the future for this young boy.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Yes. Support is good.

Blaming the parents and saying they are just fat so they must be stuffing child full of fat and should be arrested etc is not.

Which is the spin the DM is putting on it.