There has been a firestorm for the past week since Dr. David Ludwig's, a Boston pediatrician, and co-author Lindsey Murtagh's, opinion about obese children being placed in foster care was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
""In severe instances of childhood obesity, removal from the home may be justifiable from a legal standpoint because of imminent health risks and the parents' chronic failure to address medical problems," the article said."
There are cases when children are placed in foster care due to medical neglect. This is usually determined an appropriate option when there are life-threatening consequences or even permanent damage to a child's health, if the child were to remain without proper medical care. I've worked with children at my local children's home with untreated cancer or diabetes. These children were removed from the custody of their parents to save their lives. Is extreme obesity different?
A few years ago I blogged about a 14-year-old that weighed 555 pounds. He was removed from his mother's care and she was arrested. However, she maintains that she tried to keep him on track nutrition wise, but couldn't watch what he ate at school.
Jaimie Oliver, famous, British chef, brought what he calls a Food Revolution to the United States, traveling to different communities working with schools to educate children about food. He has also worked in the school kitchens teaching how to make home-cooked meals that are nutritious and appealing to children. Why do we serve flavored milk? Why do we serve processed, frozen meals? The same is true about some out-of-home placement options for children. The food is often over-processed and again, there is the flavored, sugary milk.
I suggest working family preservation with a family struggling with weight issues. The family doctor must be a part of this team, setting goals along the way with regular check-in's with the family. Success not only measured by a child's weight loss but by making healthy lifestyle choices. In extreme issues, foster care may be needed, but this decision need not be made by social workers, but by the family doctor.
Regarding the foster home, what guidelines will be needed to make them more suited than birth parents? I've seen many chubby foster parents with chubby kids.
But if the choice is made to start removing children due to weight - we need to be very careful. It scares me a bit to allow the state to determine how I should feed my children. We also need to realize that foster care is a traumatic experience. So, we save a child's physical body, but traumatize and scar their minds? Also know that statistics say that children are more apt to be abused when placed in out-of-home care. Are we setting a child up to be physically, emotionally, and sexually abused?
What do you think about this hot topic?
SOURCES: Pediatrician feels heat over child obesity idea Should Severely Obese Children Be Put in Foster Care?
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What are other Guides Saying on this Topic? Intervention vs. interference - The Guide to Family Fitness believes that we need to take the issue of childhood obesity more seriously - even if it means foster care. Does Childhood Obesity Equal Medical Neglect? - The Guide to Pediatrics further explains the article that started the discussion.
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