I read articles on public health, nutrition, eating disorders, fitness, running, etc, all of the time. I love this stuff, and I am continuously searching for new tips and recipes to continue my recovery and live my life the healthiest, both physically and mentally. From time to time, I come across articles that particularly interest me, catch my attention or leave a bad taste in my mouth after I read them. The article I found the other day seemed to unleash all three of these emotions.
The news article titled, ?Should Parents Lose Custody of Super Obese Kids?? was recently released in Chicago, where this question is currently up for debate. According to the reading, there are a number of distinguished medical journalists argue yes, that they should be taken away from parents and ?putting children temporarily in foster care is in some cases more ethical than obesity surgery. Their goal here is to keep the children?s best interest in mind, rather than blame the parent.
As most of us know and have heard countless times, obesity is an increasingly worsening problem in our country, and is now being seen among children. On a daily basis, kids are being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, a disease that once was unheard of among children, as it was usually only adults who developed such a chronic illness. There are a number of reasons for this, easy access to unhealthy and fattening junk food, the development of technology has made children much less active, parents lacking the knowledge and funds to provide their child with a healthier diet, less sleep has been correlated with weight gain, poor nutrition in school, and so many others.
This is clearly a problem in our country, and one that needs to solved. There are currently a number of organizations, people, groups, and programs, that are all working together to try and prevent this issue from worsening. Efforts and shows such as Jamie Oliver?s Food Revolution, takes viewers inside elementary and middle schools across the country to expose the fattening and unhealthy food that is served to children, because it?s well?cheaper. I personally enjoy this show because not only does the food they serve both interest and appall me, but the message they are teaching is one that we can all benefit from.
From the website: The Jamie Oliver Foundation is a registered charity whose mission is to empower, educate and engage as many people as possible to love and enjoy good food. This means learning how to cook, understanding where food comes from, and recognizing the power it can have on our health, happiness, and even finances. We do this through teaching, training and employment, and also by making good clear information available to as many people as possible.
As the issue of childhood obesity gains more attention, the people that are making efforts to stop such a ?disease? are increasing as well. We have all heard about Michelle Obama?s plans and talks about this problem, but there are tons of other organizations and people that are trying to make changes too. In my town for example, the school lunches have been improved so much these last few years. When I first entered middle school, they would serve these humongous, soft, chewy, fatty, chocolate chip cookies for 50 cents. These were seriously the best cookies I have ever tasted, but they were huge, equal to the size of about 5 normal sized treats. I noticed that as the years went by, the cookies became smaller and smaller. They were cutting down on portion sizes, trying to keep the health of the students in mind. In addition, baked chips and pretzels were now standard snack foods and the soda machine was replaced by a milk one.
According to this article, the parents and children will only be separated for the shortest amount of time possible, in which time the adults will need instruction on proper ways to parent their kids. However, some are arguing that there is too much blame being placed on the parent, while there are several other outside factors at work- advertising, peer pressure, bullying, that can lead to weight gain as well.
Some argue that when a parent allows their children to become so overweight that they can be classified as ?obese,? this is a clear form of child abuse, and therefore they must be separated. ?Protection services should be considered if parents are neglectful or actively reject efforts to control and extremely obese child?s weight.? People supporting this claim say this temporary arrangement will give both the kid and adult the knowledge they need to turn things around for their health and well-being.
There were a number of personal stories included in the article. For example, Jerri Gray lost custody of her 555 pound 14 year old son two years ago, but she argued that authorities do not understand the struggles she had to go through. Gray was working two jobs at the time to avoid losing their assets, and feeding her son any cheap and convenient food she could, most often fast and ridiculously unhealthy fatty food. To her, this was the only option to keep her and her son from becoming homeless.
So what are my thoughts on this? Well to be quite honest, I am somewhat torn, as I thought about this in a few different ways. I believe there are some very extreme cases where the parent and child ought to separated. For example, I saw a show on TLC once titled, ?Fattest Teen? or something like that, where the mother would feed her kid all of the time, because it made HER feel better and that she was taking care of her child in the best way she could. She was a bit nuts in this thought process and even though she knew her son was very obese, she continued to stuff him with fatty and unhealthy foods. However, who really knows the extent of their family situation and it could have been being blown out of proportion for TV entertainment.
My true belief on this though is that no, they should not be separated. First of all, when has foster care ever been a positive experience in our country? For the most part, it?s not too great and horror stories are often associated. Second, if there is a case where a child is obese, the parent must have some idea of what is going on. Therefore I think that proper education is the ideal direction to go in. When you are a busy working parent or individual, you have to work a small amount of time into your weekly routine to plan the week?s meals. A big problem is that people have very little knowledge of how to shop for healthier options and put meals together. Instead of taking someone?s child away, using the money that would otherwise be spent on foster care could be put toward a nutrition program, basic cooking classes, meal ideas, etc.
Furthermore, I believe that obesity is an example of an eating disorder. There are several forms of eating disorders, Anorexia of course being the main one associated with the term. Therefore I propose this question, if a child is suffering from an eating disorder that leaves them severely underweight, physically unhealthy, malnourished, and even close to death, should those children be taken away from parents? In those cases, is it the parent?s fault and they are choosing not to do anything about it? I can say from personal experience that during the worst times of my disordered eating, there was no one that could convince me to stop what I was doing. I had to make the choice to recover on my own, and start gaining my life back when I was ready to.
When someone has anorexia, bulimia or other restrictive eating behaviors, they might be forced into a treatment center or hospitalization to save their life. Unfortunately, this may only be a temporary fix, and once they are weight-restored and released, they could easily fall back into old habits and the cycle starts all over. So once again, is this the parent?s fault?
It is obvious that food, dining, restaurants, cooking, baking are all huge parts of our culture? and too often obesity, anorexia, disordered eating, over-eating, binging, restricting, and purging, all follow quite closely. Parents do play a huge role in the way their child eats, as they are the ones that buy the food and serve it, and also when their kid does physical activity, homework, and other necessary parts of their lives. Some parents might not be up to par with all of these, yet I still do not think separating the family is the best option. If anything, the emotional impact of such a separation would make the situation even worse. Proper education and that sort of intervention is the way to make changes, and to keep making efforts for better nutrition for the rest of the country.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Do you think children should be taken away if they reach a dangerous point of obesity? Or should other methods be taken?
Do you believe that obesity is a form of an eating disorder? If so, how do you feel about children being taken away from parents if they are severely underweight but are doing this under their own accord?
Source: http://amazingasset.com/2011/07/14/should-parents-lose-custody-of-super-obese-kids/
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