Social services should step in and protect the children from their own obesity..

A doctor in the United Kingdom has come out with a bold and extraordinary statement regarding the problem of childhood obesity. Dr Matthew Capehorn said that parents who had obese children under the age of 12 should be charged with parental neglect, meaning that they could have their kids taken away from them.

Dr Capehorn said that in a case where children were seriously under-nourished and had not been fed properly the police and local authorities were allowed to take away the children into care and the same should apply to children who are obese. Dr Capehorn will be rallying other doctors for support for his proposals at the British Medical Association (BMA) annual conference later in June.

Dr Capehorn argues that a child who clinically obese is at serious risk of health problems which are just as serious as for a child who in malnourished. He said that parents should be educated on how they need to feed their children and given advice about nutrition but if they fail to take this advice the social services should step in and protect the children from their own obesity. The doctor also argued that if parents were made aware that their children could be taken away into care unless they made a serious commitment to their health they might sit up and listen more to nutritionists and people giving dietary advice.

Earlier this year there was a lot of debate in the press about a boy called Connor McCreaddie whose mother was threatened with his being taken into care unless he lost some weight. At one point he weighed fourteen stone which doctors said was almost three times heavier than he should really weigh.

At Ukmedix News we think that these proposals sound a bit draconian but nevertheless they do encourage debate on what is now becoming a serious health issue in the United Kingdom. At Ukmedix News we think that the UK government is still not waking up to the dangers of an obese population and that they could do much more to stop obesity.