Obese Children Could Be Taken Away From Their Parents

parents of obese children are often in denial about their weight

The extremely controversial issue of whether very young obese children should be reported to child protection agencies has come up in Australia after Dr Shirley Alexander from the Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney was quoted in the Medical Journal of Australia as saying that the parents of these obese children may be forcibly required to sign a ‘responsibility contract’ which would bind them to managing the health of their children better. The Community Services Minister, Ms Lisa Neville however said that the state would only intervene if a doctor was convinced that the child was at immediate risk.

Dr Alexander in her article said that she believed that a doctor who did nothing about a very obese child was possibly breaching his or her duty of care to the patient. Some examples of very obese children included some as young as four who were already suffering from obesity related illnesses such as hypertension, sleep problems and a fatty liver.

The parents of obese children are often in denial about the weight of their children and respond negatively to any warnings given to them by child protection agencies. One study done in Australia saw that half of all parents with overweight children stated that their child was of a perfectly healthy weight.

Parents are also often in denial about the health problems that obesity can cause their children. They often talk about their children growing out of their “puppy fat” but this very rarely happens. If children are obese when they reach their teenage years they are more than likely to stay that way for the rest of their lives.  Good eating habits need to be instilled in children when they are young if they want to be healthy for the rest of their lives.

In the United Kingdom there have also been a few cases where social workers have had to intervene to protect children from obesity which caused an uproar.