Obese Children to be Taken From Parents

Social workers in the UK have warned that they will have to take ‘dangerously overweight’ children from their parents and put them into care if the obesity epidemic continues.

The Local Government Association, which represents more than 400 councils in England and Wales, said seriously fat children should be classed as examples of ‘parental neglect’.

It has been estimated that by 2012 one million children in England will be obese and by 2025 almost a quarter of boys will be classed as dangerously overweight.

Adding fuel to the fire in the fat debate is public health expert Professor David Hunter, who last month declared that obesity posed as big a risk to Britain as terrorism.

Sadly, obesity is also a growing problem amongst Australian kids. So much so that a Sydney hospital has become possibly the first in the world to appoint a doctor dedicated to treating overweight children.

The number of overweight and obese children in Australia has been estimated at 1.5 million and health systems are struggling to deal with the fallout. Demand for weight management services at the hospital has increased fivefold in the past three years. Hospital treated 17 morbidly obese children in 2005. This year it predicts it will see at least 90.

As Alpha Mummy pointed out, “If we’re being honest, most of us think of ourselves as being maybe just a little bit overweight and think of the obesity epidemic as someone else’s problem. “

So what’s the answer? Obviously we don’t want to live in some sort of totalitarian regime where children are frog-marched out of their homes for being a bit pudgy. How do we fight that fat war fairly?

[Source]