Should the boy be put into care cos of childhood obesity.....

[crispyduck]

Watching the news tonight, a young boy has been threatened to be taken into care by SS, do you think SS have the right to put a child into care because of obesity....

right then. well that sounds perfectly sensible then.

Poor woman, it sounds like she hasn't actually seen what her son looks like. And if "healthier foods" are lettuce, no wonder he won't eat it. I can't stand it in this weather either.

SP, numerous appointments have been made for this child with doctors and nutritionists et al, but his mother won't take him.
His mother is KILLING him. He will be diabetic soon, and his arteries will fur up. He can't walk properly. If his mother was giving him crack or vodka because he liked it there would be no argument that there had to be an element of coercion. This is an attempt to get his mother to take this seriously. And yes, in an ideal world his father too, but he's not around, and not feeding this boy mountains of crap.

Does he have Prader Wili syndrome?

No. He just eats too much. Or gets fed too much shite.

Prader Wali syndrome was never mentioned.

I think that is highly unlikely as it is normally diagnosed very early in life.

I think his family are desperate to find some kind of "cause" or syndrome that would explain his size.

In the absence of acknowledging his god-awful diet.

Look at the list of what he eats! I find it hard to believe it is anything other than total abdication of parental responsibility and too much shite food?

However I will watch the programme with interest.

Wonder what the role of the grandmother is in all this? Sounds like she ought to be able to help really, or is she also celebrally challenged do you think?

And presumably, his lack of exercise.

I know he can't walk to school now, but I bet he was never encouraged to be physically mobile.

Bet he's a dab hand with a playstation though. Just a guess, I could be wrong.

Did you see him on the trampoline on TV? He was barely bouncing.

haven't read all of thread but saw this in paper today and I feel that the mother is simply not taking responsibility.

You claim that because he won't eat fruit and veg she has to give him crap is just stupid. Don't feed him if he won't eat healthily

she also talks about being a single mother, blah, blah, blah, that is not an excuse!!

I do think the mother needs to be dealt with. Perhaps sent on parenting classes? Be monitored to see what she is feeding him? I don't know.

Sadly, the effects of this are not going to be quick or easy to reverse.

I'm just surpised that she and her family have let it get this far.

Agree that the mother seems to have taken little/no responsibility.

She was on fivelive today and said she had taken him to a nutritionist once and had actually asked social services to help her.

Not sure if that is true, haven't actually read much on it.

Some sort of parenting order? Might work better than "putting him into care", though if he was malnourished and under-fed, then they wouldn't think twice about it... If he were severely anorexic, he'd be hospitalised.

He's "morbidly obese" so therefore we must assume that his mother is eiter killing him, or allowing him to be killed by his eating habits. It's very sad.

on a sky news article it says he has lost 1.5 stones since xmas - he was 15.5 stones before then

It is parental responsibility in plain speak.
Parents are failing in their responsibility.
SO it is a neglect issue IMO
quote here

Connor McCreaddie weighed 15 stones and 8lbs - four times the weight of a healthy child of his age - before Christmas.

After beginning an intensive exercise regime and swapping the junk food for healthy alternatives, the youngster lost one-and-a-half stones in two months.

Well it's good that he's losing weight, I suppose.

"He had a bite of an apple ONCE and he spat it out". Excuse me? He is 8 years old and he has eaten an apple ONCE?

No wonder he is so fat, I saw a video on BBC and yes he was playing a video game. They also showed her smoking and getting out bread from the fridge. Nothing wrong with bread of course as part of a balanced diet, but she is just pandering to him.

If he is refusing to eat fruit and veg, well DO starve him till he's too hungry to say no!

The Trevor Mc Donald programme wasn't shown tonight as there was a party political broadcast on here

I hope it's shown at another time, as I really wanted to watch this.

How times have changed! Back in the 1980's my brother who was 10yrs old at the time was put in hospital under observation because he was TOO THIN!
Our GP was convinced that my mum was starving him as he was only skin and bones but in hospital he ate loads and loads and still did not put on much weight.
No thyroid problems or worms, just a very high metabolism.
Now he is almost 40yrs old you would not recognise him, he has a beer belly but his arms and legs are still skinny.
That poor boy should be put into care for at least 6 months and have his calorie intake sorted and get some exercise.
I know that grandmother was trying to help her daughter but i think she is just making everything worse by trying to keep the status quo.
AB.

Of course it is abuse. The mother is using depression as an excuse for laying in bed, smoking and letting her mother do all the work. And his sister is 18, it didn't mention if she worked or not or if she could perhaps take on some responsibility for the food shopping as the mother obviously cannot cope. (I know I sound hard as nails but I do think depression is used far too often as an excuse, I have experience of depression in loved ones and there is a difference between real full-on depression and feeling blue.)

Judging by the house it isn't a particularly healthy environment for the boy to be living in anyway. I didn't like the tone of the reporter, like because they live in social housing they must be dogs? Sorry, but that is just crap.

He demands food, they give it to him. The grandmother was just as bad, why doesn't she take him for a while if she is so worried. Don't give him 5 slices of toast for breakfast might be a start.

This story, and the programme just annoyed me, at what point do you not look at your child at 14 stone and think, I really need all the help I can get? If they can take a man to court over an 11 stone dog but not a child - what does that say about the country?

(I'm heavy myself, I made sure from the offset that despite living in social housing and on a low wage my dts would eat proper food. I'm a 5'8" adult, I do not weigh what this child weighs. Enough.)

Message withdrawn

I'm so sad for him that they have his picture all over the papers and online with his 8 year old man boobs. It's horrible. Really cruel.

I think if she can't sort it out they should take him into the care of a foster family to get him healthy and then educate his mother.

Perhaps the shock of all this attention will be sufficient to boot her up the arse and get it sorted.

I heard her say on tv that she missed a few appointments because of her depression and panic attacks. She really should not buy junk food though and only have healthy food in the house and then he would never have gotten that overweight.

There was a story about this boy in one of those Reveal type mags in the last couple of months - I read it in the canteen at work - the way that was written, he was just an outsize boy who was growing too fast.

I assume she will have been paid for that, has this attention followed on from that?

This from his local paper 2 months ago is virtually the same story I saw.

(He is 5' tall and takes a size 8 shoe according to that. Obv 14 stone is still overweight for that height, but not as bad as for an average height 7-8 year old?)