From foodconsumer.org
Got an obese child? You could lose custody
By Sue Mueller - foodconsumer.org
Feb 25, 2007 - 8:43:40 PM
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Believe it or not,
the government has the jurisdiction over your children.
And parents are a childcare provider or
guardian in a sense. That is, when you can't take good care of your child, the government
has a right to intervene to take your child away from you or get rid of your
custody right, all in the name of the best interests for your child.
This can happen
without any criminal acts involved in childcare.
To many people's surprise, if your children
are obese to such a degree that the social workers could not bear seeing your
children's obesity, you are at a real risk of losing custody of your child.
That may be likely to happen
tomorrow to a
UK
mother named Nicola McKeown who has an eight year old son, Connor McCreaddie,
with his body weight of more than 80 kilo.
He is so obese that he could not be able to walk, bath and dress himself
without difficulty.
Because of his
excessive weight, Connor has often to miss school.
News media reports that he unintentionally broke four beds and two bicycles.
Ms McKeown
was summoned
to a child protection conference tomorrow
in front of a company of authorities including
medical authorities (administrative medical workers), social authorities
(social workers) and law enforcement authorities (police officers).
Experts believe that
the only way to prevent the kid from acquiring life threatening diabetes, or
heart disease is taking him away from his mother.
And authorities are ready to take the child
into care at any time on the basis of alleged child abuse.
Based on authorities' judgment,
80 plus kilo body weight for an eight year old kid is a sure sign of child
abuse which is serious enough to justify the state intervention.
The mother accused the
local authorities in Wallsend, near
Newcastle upon Tyne
of failing to help her and her son and complained that those who are ready to
take her son into social care are exactly those who have never come to help
her.
Ms. McKeown said she should have
been helped earlier.
McKeown told a TV
channel that it is not easy to deal with a child who keeps asking for food. Her
son happened to have a very good appetite and "eats "chips with
everything", loves curry and snacks on sausage sandwiches, burgers,
chocolate biscuits and "junk food all day long while sitting at the
computer," Guardian.co.uk reports.
The woman has already
felt depressed because of the intervention from the government.
The mother’s mother Barbara Bake
said if her grandson is ever taken into care,
that would be the finish of her seriously.
Dr Colin Waine,
chairman of the National Obesity Forum was quoted as saying "He has great
risk of diabetes and coronary illness. His life expectancy is severely
prejudiced. So action is required if his health is to be safeguarded."
"As far as I'm
concerned this is a form of child abuse. Not done intentionally, but the result
is child abuse," Dr Michael Markiewicz, a consultant pediatrician was
quoted as saying.
But "I don't see
how they can say we are not doing enough," Ms. McKeown was quoted as
saying. "I was given a diet sheet when he was five-years-old, stuck
to it for a whole year. There was supposed to be a follow-up appointment,
nothing.
”
A health observer who
does not want to be named comments on the incident saying that the doctors can
be more dangerous than an illness or condition in many cases as it is they who
define the risk of various diseases and decide who should receive what medical
treatments, which not only takes aways your right to making medical decisions, but also subjects you to some risk you would otherwise be able to avoid.