Thread: Should parents lose custody of super obese kids?

Obese Third Grader Taken From Mom, Placed in Foster Care
By Alyssa Newcomb | ABC News – 20 hrs ago

A Cleveland third grader who weighed more than 200 pounds was taken from his mother after officials reportedly said she did not do enough to help the boy, who suffered from a weight-related health issue, to lose weight. “They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don’t love my child,” the boy’s mother, who was not identified, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It’s a lifestyle change and they are trying to make it seem like I am not embracing that. It is very hard, but I am trying.”

Officials first became aware of the boy’s weight after his mother took him to the hospital last year while he was having breathing problems, the newspaper reported. The child was diagnosed with sleep apnea and began to be monitored by social workers while he was enrolled in a program called “Healthy Kids, Healthy Weight” at the Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

The boy lost a few pounds, but recently began to gain some back, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. At that point, the Department of Children and Family Services asked a juvenile court for custody of the boy, citing his soaring weight as a form of medical neglect, according to the newspaper.

Taking obese children from their families has become a topic of intense debate over the past year after one high-profile pediatric obesity expert made controversial comments in the Journal of the American Medical Association advocating the practice in acute cases. “In severe instances of childhood obesity, removal from the home may be justifiable, from a legal standpoint, because of imminent health risks and the parents’ chronic failure to address medical problems,” Dr. David Ludwig co-wrote with Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

A trial is set for the boy’s ninth birthday next month to determine whether his mother will regain custody.

But one family who has been in the same position as the Ohio family told ABC News they disagreed with the practice when “Good Morning America” spoke with them in January. “Literally, it was two months of hell. It seemed like the longest two months of my life,” mother Adela Martinez said.

Her daughter, 3-year-old Anamarie Regino, weighing 90 pounds, was taken from her parents and placed into foster care a decade ago.

Anamarie didn’t improve at all in foster care, and she was returned to her parents. The young girl was later diagnosed with a genetic predisposition. “They say it’s for the well-being of the child, but it did more damage than any money or therapy could ever to do to fix it,” Martinez said.

Anamarie Regino, who is now a teenager, agreed. “It’s not right, what [Dr. Ludwig] is doing, because to get better you need to be with your family, instead of being surrounded by doctors,” she said.

When told of the Regino case, Ludwig said his solution of state intervention did not always work. “Well, state intervention is no guarantee of a good outcome, but to do nothing is also not an answer,” he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/obese-third-gr...201731761.html

Buying processed food/fast food is a choice. So say it is a mom & 1 child. Mom buys w Marie Calander frozen dinners at $3.50/each(?) so roughly $7. Not much food in those dinners.
For that same $7 she could have bought 2 skinless chicken breasts, package of brown rice, a bunch of fresh carrots & had a healthy, low fat meal. That meal take time to prepare & Marie Callander takes 5 minutes. Hey I am just as guilty with the frozen dinners but then I don't have weight issues. Even with teenagers, if you don't buy junk food they can't eat junk food. It is how you raise your children from a young age. My kids as adults still don't eat junk food. I used to have to throw away their Halloween candy because they seldom ate it.
I don't see what is gained by removing a child from their parent though.

I agree. I bet that child feels as if they are being punished because they are fat. They should have educated Mom about making better choices and shopping.

When I was a kid, snacks were seldom served. Now I buy all kinds of junk. I seldom eat it, but I do like having it on hand.

Me

I think they should worry about the kids that are being beat or raped.

Or the NJ "Dad" who took his two year old daughter on a court ordered visit... and dropped her over a bridge inot a creek, still strapped into her car seat. Then he left town - having already packed - and has since been picked up in CA.

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Mother wins back permanent custody of obese Ohio boy
By Kim Palmer | Reuters – 1 hr 55 mins ago.

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - An Ohio juvenile court judge removed a protective order on Thursday in the case of a third-grader who was taken from his mother's custody last October after he tipped the scales at 219 lbs (99 kg).

Juvenile court judge David Stucki ruled in favor of a mother's petition to permanently restore the boy to her custody and to close the boy's case with the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services.

Social workers were alerted to the child's medical situation in March 2010 when the boy, then 7, was hospitalized for two weeks with severe breathing problems.

He was removed from his home by court order in October 2011 after more than a year of supervision, and was eventually sent to live with an uncle in Columbus until April 23 when he returned to supervised-custody with his mother.

The boy is now 9 years old and weighs 173 lbs (78 kg), up from a low of 166 lbs before he returned to his mother's home.

Representatives for the county did not fight the mother's motion for the return of her son in court on Thursday, and the Department of Children and Family Services now has no legal rights or responsibilities as to the boy's living situation.

"It is the right thing to do at this time. The best interest of the child has been protected and supported. The system worked," Stucki told attorneys after making his ruling.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney James Hardiman, who represented the mother, told the judge that since returning to Cleveland the boy has received a free membership to a local YMCA, a Big Brother assignment through the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program and the county will pay for half of the cost of weekly cooking classes for his family.

"We are happy the county terminated protective services. We think the case was ill-advised," Hardiman told Reuters. "Our plan was to get him out of the system as soon as possible. This whole thing has been about his weight with no concern to his emotional state."

Medical professionals, prior to his removal from his mother, had concluded that the boy's weight gain was due to his diet and not other medical reasons. This is the first time an Ohio child had been removed from a parent's custody primarily due to weight concerns.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 17 percent children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 years are obese, as opposed to merely overweight.

http://news.yahoo.com/mother-wins-ba...021043824.html