Obese Children & Parental Responsibility

[Tawasakm]

Heres something that my school (and others) used to try when I was a kid. They'd set aside a week when school would start earlier and ask children to bring in their breakfast with them (making sure it was what we'd normally eat). Then the teachers would look at the actual diet of the children and talk about nutrition.

My Mum actually refused to do it - she wasn't going to send me to school hungry 'just to satisfy the curiosity of the teachers'. I'm grateful to her for doing it. I always ate a nutritious breakfast and damned if I wanted to go to school hungry. I was always fueled up and ready by the time I got there.

Peronally I think teachers need to be very careful not to pass judgements. There are many reasons for children to be overweight. It is also the case that many such children are sensitive about it and drawing further attention to it could make it worse. If a teacher is going to interfere then I think they should do it very discreetly ie arrange an update of medical records (where they may learn there is a medical reason and let it drop before making a fuss the child will know about) or a meeting with parents about diet but on the pretext of something else. I would hate for an authority figure to a child to signal to that child 'you are fat. That is wrong. It is a problem I need to talk with your parents about so we can fix it'. Especially if it turns out to be a medical problem and the child will always be overweight - and consequently always think there is something wrong with him/herself.

[Stoker]

Hey Stoker? Just received an email from my dad about your stupid, assinine reference to "Canadian Hitler youth". He mentioned that when he was in the first grade in Germany, he learned how to throw a hand grenade. Did you learn how to do that in Canada buddy? He learned that Jews with horns on their heads were lurking in the forests waiting to eat German kids. Did you learn that kind of fear in a Canadian school during physical education?

When the Hitler youth was first started, did it involve weapons training and jew bashing from the beganing, or was it adopted with a gradual progression?

Yeah, learning how to throw hand grenades and learning about nutrition are precisely the same. Maybe you should realize that many Germans feel an incredible amount of guilt about what happened during the war before you open your mouth you idiot. Why bring up such suffering needlessly? Before you engage in the usual stupid, verbal masturbation, you should know what you are talking about. Damn you are dumb.

I understand when people refer to the lessons that should be learned from this era. I have no problem with that. But when stupid, inapproriate analogies are made to foods and nutrition classes, it makes me really angry. At one point, I think it was Argus who said that when someone makes an anaolgy to Hitler, they lose all credibility. Unfortunately, you have none to lose.

Where did I say it was the same?

You mention the suffering of the German people (I assume the suffereing of people of the other nations maters to you also) and in the same paragraph you ask why I bring it up. The answer is simple, I don't wish for history to repeat itself.

Now you calim it a "inapproriate analogie", but you don't say why it is inapproriate......also, you never answered my question:

I'm sure you think it's wrong for the state to be meddling in a person's bedroom.......how is meddling in their kitchen/living room any different?

Now if my reference to Hitler leads you to feelings of guilt, I'll gladly use a different dictator (of your choice) to refer to when I try and make my argument against an increase in state controls and lessoned indiviual freedoms.

To reiterate, let's let kids be kids and allow the parents to raise their children without the fear of a state sponsered "fat police". (Notice I didn't say gestapo Cartman?)

[ndpnic]

I think the original point and question have been lost here.

Lot of off topic going on!

[playfullfellow]

When kids have two working parents; their breakfast probably consists of sugary ready to eat cereals.

I seem to remember when I was in school, many eons ago, that it was the more well off families that had all the latest, pre-packaged cerals. The poorer families had oatmeal, make your own type of creals. I don't seem to remember too many of the "poor" kids being over weight. Besides, where I went to school, the poor kids were generally farm kids and had chores and work to do after school.

I still assert that it is not necessarily a criminal aspect when kids are over weight. It has become a disease of society as a whole in Canada. Some people are overweight no matter what they do, some are skinny no matter how they eat. I still feel that a person can be overweight and yet be healthy. Of course there is also the extreme where weight becomes dangerously high but what "high horse" do we have the right to say this is criminal? We spend too much time looking at what is wrong with others when we should be concentrating on keeping our own lives in order.

[ndpnic]

Let's try it this way :

A mother takes her 6 year old to the doctors. The doctor informs her that her child is 40lbs heavier than the proper range for her age and hieght. The doctor also informs the mother of the health risks with clinical obesity, so the decide to do testing to see if there is a Medical reason for the extreme weight.

The results come back, and there are no Medical reasons for this child to be obese.

The mother insists that her child is "just chubby, bay fat", and continues parenting the same.

3 months later the child ends up at the ER with heartfailure, bro7ught on by the weight.

Who is resposible for this happening?

Is it not the mother, since she was made aware of her childs condition, the health risks involved, and yet decided the doctor was wrong, her 90lb 6 yr old was perfectly fine, and therefore didn't change her eating/exercise habbits.

Is this not the defenition of "Criminal Negligence"?

If we starve our children it is a crime.

Why is it not a crime to stuff them to bursting?

[shackwacky]

Your scenario, as written, may make a case for poor judgement on the part of the mother. I fail to see anything criminal.

Really though, how often do you think something like that happens? The mother in your post worried enough about her child to visit a Dr., complete further testing, and learn about the problems associated with obesity. It does not seem likely that at that point she would choose to ignore the advice of the pediatrician and increase the food intake of her child. Killing with kindness.

Children don't come with an instruction booklet and there is no one-size-fits-all answers. The amount of food required to maintain energy for one six year old can be the same amount that on another six year old adds pounds. Or starves another. Perhaps this parent has not yet figured out how to keep this child healthy and well fed without sacrificing nutrition for calories or vice versa? Obviously she cares enough to try.

Absolutely charge parents who starve their children. To starve a child you have to knowingly withhold the basic necessities of life. These children would be suffering. You would see the results.

I found a couple different ways of defining criminal negligence:

an act of negligence that is a violation of law and constitutes a crime

As far as I know there is no law that states you must maintain slender children.

recklessly acting without reasonable caution and putting another person at risk of injury or death

This one is closer. I suppose you could say that if the mother was sufficiently impressed by the warning of the Doctor, and if the Doctor had been emphatic and detailed enough in expressing his concerns - perhaps her continuing to feed the child as she always had may constitute negligence.

However, if she truly believes that her child is just chubby, does this not take it back to being poor judgment on her part? A big mistake? An error? And now that her child has had a heart attack, you would like to compound her grief and guilt by making her a criminal? Seems severe.

We should use the time and energy that would be wasted on punishing the decent trying parents to track down and punish those truly abusive undeserving people who hurt and molest their children.