Parents Lose Custody Of 7 Children Because They're Too Fat

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White Rain

White Rain

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A newborn baby who was taken away from her parents because they were judged too overweight to look after her has returned home.
The family from Dundee, Scotland was split up by social workers from the city's Children's Panel.
The baby girl was born two weeks ago and was taken from the arms of her 322-pound mother shortly after her birth.
The 40-year-old woman and her 53-year-old husband, who weighs around 252-pound, have not been named to protect the identity of their children.
Two of their children, ages 3 and 4, were taken away earlier this year.
Another four children, including a 13-year-old boy who is said to weigh 224-pounds, have also been taken from their parents.
more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571646,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r4:c0.000000:b0:z5
 
I really hope there is more to this. Heavy people can care for children for God's sake. There has got to be more.
 
Tricia said:
I really hope there is more to this. Heavy people can care for children for God's sake. There has got to be more.
Click to expand...

I've got to believe that too, Tricia. I simply cannot accept that these children were removed because of their parents' weight - that is just too unbelievable. I wish we could find out more.
 
Gee wiz here in America we don't even take them away if they are starved and abused. We just send the parents to class and hope for the best. That my opinion from all the cases I have seen lately.
 
Well this may be rather blunt, but if they can physically get together to make babies, then they should be able to care for them, you think?
 
I know they can care for them and while I wish they had just been offered counseling and some sort of therapy, this is gravely unhealthy for the children. Obesity can lead to heart disease and other ailments causing premature death. Adults have a choice to be obese in 98% of the cases-children do not.

Overeating is usually an addiction and the parents, while possibly addicted to food are still probably loving and able to care for their kids. However, I find it incredibly irresponsible and ignorant to feed a child to the point of them becoming so severely overweight unless they have a rare genetic disorder. Do people not care that their kids are not only set for a lesser quality of life but that they are unhealthy, too?

People never cease to amaze me.
 
I went back to re-read the article and saw this (which I didn't catch the first time): "Three of the children in care are now attending an obesity clinic. The eldest child asked the authorities himself to be taken away from his parents.
Dundee city council does not comment on individual cases but a spokesperson said: "Children would not be removed from a family environment just because of a weight issue."

It seems to me that there's more going on in that home than being overweight. Still wish we had more information.
 
OK, that makes sense. If the parents were morbidly obese and their children were not getting the proper nutrition and therefore morbidly obese too then that could be cause for removal.

It's not the parents weight but the weight they allowed their children to gain.
 
How sad that the 13 year old boy asked to be taken away. Unless he's a very tall boy he really does weigh alot, and could be the target of teasing and bullies. I hope they all get help and learn how to cope and do what it takes. If the weight problems are due to over eating I don't see how they could have afforded all the food for around eight obese people.
 
^^ Some people have lots and lots of money-I'm not one of them but hey-they're out there! ;)
 
That's ridiculous! I've never heard of such a thing ever. It may be genetic; there's no reason for those children to be taken away as long as they have a loving safe home.
 
southcitymom said:
I went back to re-read the article and saw this (which I didn't catch the first time): "Three of the children in care are now attending an obesity clinic. The eldest child asked the authorities himself to be taken away from his parents.
Dundee city council does not comment on individual cases but a spokesperson said: "Children would not be removed from a family environment just because of a weight issue."

It seems to me that there's more going on in that home than being overweight. Still wish we had more information.
Click to expand...
(bolded by me)
I wish we knew why he asked to be taken away..maybe it has more to due with the reason why they took all the kids away?
 
MeoW333 said:
(bolded by me)
I wish we knew why he asked to be taken away..maybe it has more to due with the reason why they took all the kids away?
Click to expand...

I'd like to know that too, MeoW333.

I don't like the thought of children who are obese being taken away from their family unless something else is going on.

My 9-year old son has a friend at school who is obese and always has been. But this child has very good parents - they are "normal"-sized and have tried for years to work with their child on his weight issues. Calories and exercise not withstanding, some people are fatter than others. That's not a crime. IMHO, holding onto excess weight can be a result of emotional and spiritual issues and not just physical choices.

This is a little bit of a red button issue for me. "Fat" seems to be the next "smoking." It's okay to treat overweight people like pariahs all under the guise of caring about their health. I think it's BS.
 
There has to be more to the story than this. I certainly don't think this is okay if it is that black and white. I didn't realize 250lbs is considered morbidly obese.

It DOES bother me a lot to see parents who are overweight and make unhealthy food decisions let that effect their children. The child does not control what they eat. They eat what you give them and if you are giving the soda, cookies, high fat food etc then obviously they are not going to be very healthy children. That is just simply irresponsible and lazy on the part of the parents.

As far as discrimination goes I think discrimination regarding overweight people is pretty universally accepted as okay. You could say something to an overweight person you could never say to a minority w/out getting in trouble. I think it is because it has to do with the cosmetic and that is somethign almost everyone can relate to and agree on what is attractive and what's not. People also assume overweight individuals are lazy and uneducated. I also think most of the discrimination is geared towards women. It seems more socially acceptable for a man to be overweight than a woman. I see incidents all the time especially on the subway. Almost always any comments made or gestures made are geared towards women.
 
If they allowed their 13 year old to become 244 pounds, and it is NOT because of some medical disorder, then I think their children should be taken away, since they are obviously unable to provide them with a healthy home life. Just because the parents are fat does not mean the children should be. But, unfortunately, children tend to imitate their parents. So if the parents were unable or unwilling to curb their childrens' eating habits, then they should not be parents. Let the kids have an opportunity to live a healthy life.
 
I think it would be helpful to define some parameters for snatching fat kids from their parents.

Shall we use that colorful little chart from the doctor's office? Do we only take obese kids from their homes, but allow those who are merely overweight to stay? That's a hard one because those overweight kids might become obese if allowed to stay with their family? And that would be bad - if their parents have allowed them to become overweight, they are obviously failing as parents and they obviously don't care about their children (downright abusive is what they are!) and it's just a matter of time before the children become obese, so we should probably just take them once they reach overweight on that tidy little chart.

Of course, we could be preemptive - we care deeply about the health of kids and we have a duty to make sure they stay in the right zone on that very helpful chart...maybe we should just take them all after they're born and feed them correctly every day so that they always fall within the normal range on this chart (what would we do without this chart - I am so glad someone made it for us!). We can let them go back home when they're 18. Yep - I think that's the best course of action. They'll be happier that way! They'll live to be 108 and run marathons.

By George, I think I've landed upon a viable solution to solve our obesity "epidemic." I don't know why someone didn't think about this sooner.
 
Actually, it's not "BS". I can't speak for everybody but I don't treat anybody like a... what was the word, pariah? It's merely scientificaly proven that obesity lowers the quality of life and can result in tragic health consequences. I stand by my previous reponse that for the majority of people, obesity is a result of choices and children can't choose what to eat; they eat what the parents make.

Usually, obese parents are making unhealthy foods or not making foods at all and are relying on fast foods and processed junk. If somebody chooses to be obese by all means, go ahead-it doesn't affect me or mine. However, when a child is obese because their parents are too lazy to feed them properly or learn the simple math of calorie consumption then I feel it's bordering on neglect. I don't feel it's warranted that the kids be removed from their home but maybe offering counseling and monitering their health closely could help.

It's like smoking; a "quick fix" that is linked to premature death. We all have the freedom to choose how we want to live and sometimes, how we want to die.
 
Until they start taking severely asthmatic children away from parents who smoke, I say let these kids remain where they are (assuming the weight issue is the only reason they've been removed). ONE severe asthma attack can KILL--obesity is an ongoing health issue that can be dealt with.
(There are other massive health issues parents ignore as well, but the smokers with asthmatics make me what to :banghead: .
 
Pandora--thank you!

I will say this. I am no longer practicing, but I previously was an attorney, primarily in family law (with enough criminal law to draw me to this website!). Asthmatic or not, parents who smoked around their kids drove me *nuts* (and I'm a smoker, but not when I'm around kids, and wouldn't smoke if I had kids). When I was guardian ad litem, it was something I always took into account in making recommendations. It particularly annoyed me when parents would smoke in the car while driving their kids to my office, leading to kids that reeked like smoke.

It looks like they've returned the baby to the parents: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571646,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r4:c0.000000:b0:z5

I am guessing that there is a bit more to the story than has been reported, though.
 
This is really disturbing! There is far more to life than the fitness of one's body...and at the top of that list is family. Wrenching this family apart in effort to "fix" a physical health issue while creating a plague of emotional devastation is absurd. There has to be a kinder more productive way to approach the issue of nutritional sensibility... good grief.
 
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