CHILD OBESITY. IS IT CHILD ABUSE?
Whose fault is childhood obesity? The parents, the community, the junk-food industry?
In Victoria, the blame is being laid at the feet of parents and, in an extreme move, child welfare agencies have already removed two children from their families, reports The Age.
“The Department of Human Services has cited obesity in at least two child protection court cases this year,” reports the newspaper.
“One case involved a pre-teenage boy who weighed 110 kilograms and the other a teenage girl whose waist circumference of 169 centimetres was greater than her height. The department would not reveal the exact number of cases.”
A spokesman for the Department of Human Services said obesity “was not of itself grounds for child protection workers to become involved with a family” but that it may be a symptom of other issues that could “place a child at risk or harm”.
Experts are reluctant to equate obesity with abuse: Associate Professor Tim Gill, of Sydney University’s Boden Institute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise and Eating, quoted in The Age report, said “if the only reason for removing a child from their parents was weight, it was not appropriate”.
Associate Professor John Dixon, of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, believes it to be a community problem, “an Australia-wide, a global problem that we’re not addressing very well at the moment”.
The Biggest Loser fitness trainer and author Michelle Bridges, takes the opposite – and more controversial – view, claiming that childhood obesity is ultimately the fault of parents.
“It’s easy to point the finger at governments, fast-food chains and shops that carefully position the lollies next to the checkout,” she wrote her column in Sunday Life magazine. “But at the end of the day, the inescapable fact is that we must look to parents to take the lead when it comes to what children put in their mouths.”
“What it does mean, however, is that parents are ultimately responsible for getting their kids off on the right foot – not just with their eating habits but also with their knowledge and understanding of food. We can break this cycle of obesity, not just at a national level but at a generational level, too.”
So Hooplarians, over to you. Does child obesity equal child abuse? And are parents ultimately responsible for their children’s weight?
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42 Responses to this article
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annoyed July 12, 2012
I feel extremely sad for the parents, who probably have no real knowledge about nutrition and probably have weight issues themselves. How horrible and confusing and damaging for the children’s long-term emotional well-being too…far better to compulsorily enroll them in a weightloss or nutrition progam and train the whole family and keep them together – this makes me very sad. Whil I dion’t condone having obese kids, it is not abuse…in fact many obese people comfort eat and mothers the world over are renowned for showing love with treats and “comfort food” ….ergo defining obesity as abuse is a stretch.
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Bailey July 12, 2012
Is there a better image you guys could use rather than a faceless obese child?
This topic is complex and difficult. I hope the comments don’t just turn into a fat bashing/parent bashing opportunity.
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Keziah Hill July 12, 2012
I would assume there are other issues at play here not just obesity.
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FerrelBerryl July 12, 2012
Feeding your kids the wrong foods and teaching them poor habits isnt great. Dealing with fat stigma, body shame and poor health isn’t an awesome way to start out in life. However the only difference between these kids and my sister and I, who are thin but were raised by the most rabidly anti fat, neurotic, shaming, generally damaging mother you can imagine is that you can see body fat and you can’t see the sort of self loathing and dysfunction that takes decades of therapy to unravel. Parents make not so great decisions with not so great repercussions every single day. So long as kids are loved, sheltered and safe it’s the community’s responsibility to help and guide but not to police.
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Lou July 12, 2012
Recently someone I know posted a family photo on the internet. One of their extended family in the photo was a morbidly obese teenage girl. How a parent – or extended family – could let a child get so obese I do not understand. The future for this girl must surely include many negative health issues. It is very sad.
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Amber Petty July 12, 2012
I agree with Michelle that it ultimately IS the parents responsibility as the children are in their care. Feeding, protecting and sheltering your child is what you take on when you decide to become a parent. I don’t agree with this constant ‘modern Australian’ attitude out there that we should always be looking for people, governments or external targets to blame for our own personal issues or that of our family. It’s a real victim mentality that takes away ownership of your actions and your role to better yourself etc. Saying that though, I think we need to be careful to not jump down these parents throats with judgement….it’s not always that the parent is lazy and therefore that’s impacting the child’s health, there is a huge amount of ignorance out there in society as to what is healthy and what is not. A lot of parents that have bad health I would imagine have grown up with health ignorant parents as well…..but also there’s a huge amount of bad self asteem out there in society which also breeds a lack of self love and self care, which is handed down often unwittingly from low self asteem parents to what then become overweight kids who grow up with low self asteem themselves. I do think though if a child becomes hugely obese then there is a real need for sympathetic Child Services to step in as the child is in danger. But the judgement needs to be left out by all of us.
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Quiet July 12, 2012
I might have started with joining the whole family up to Weight Watchers (kids can go after a certain age if accompanied by an adult), a GP and/or nutritionist to monitor health of whole family, a psychologist for the thought stuff, perhaps a social worker to help them shop properly and deal with issues, and a parenting course or something before I took the kids away, as we only get a smidge more than the headlines not the full story, it’s hard to judge
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Quiet July 12, 2012
I might have started with joining the whole family up to Weight Watchers (kids can go after a certain age if accompanied by an adult), a GP and/or nutritionist to monitor health of whole family, a psychologist for the thought stuff, perhaps a social worker to help them shop properly and deal with issues and to case manage them, and a parenting course or something before I took the kids away, as we only get a smidge more than the headlines not the full story, it’s hard to judge
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Cathy July 12, 2012
I’d like to think that all avenues had been pursued before removing the children from their parents’ care, and usually things have to be pretty bad before that happens. Parents are responsible for every aspect of a child’s life until they are deemed old enough to look after themselves. That includes their health and well-being. By not looking after children when they are sick, taking them to a doctor, being responsible for their medication to me constitutes neglect which is a form of child abuse. Neglecting life style choices such as good nutrition, saying no, demonstrating moderation in eating and leading a non-active life is a form of abuse particularly when help and support has been given. We say that adults subject themselves to alcohol and food abuse, why is it a different matter when parents do it to children? Still, it is very sad for this situation to occur especially in this day and age.
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Amber Petty July 12, 2012
Yes I agree ‘quiet’ social workers need to work in with the family not come in and take the kids away. The kids will be traumatised being taken away from the parents. Kids have no idea their parents are doing wrong….only till later and we all end up in therapy that we do….:)
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Rose July 12, 2012
We buy the food, we prepare the meals, the lunchbox. Healthy, active kids is the goal. Obesity starts at home and leads to a lifetime of food issues, health issues, self esteem issues and a lot of unhappiness. We come in different shapes & sizes but obesity is down to parenting.
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Sudiah July 12, 2012
Parents of obese children may be poorly educated in healthy eating, however what I’ve observed is more often that they have very poor parenting skills in being able to set boundaries for their children. Their kids demand high sugar and fat foods and throw tantrums if it is not provided, and refuse to eat what is offered. Parents unable to set boundaries and controls with their children end up giving in, ultimately to the child’s detriment. The cases cited in the article are obviously extreme, and this is an issue for the community. However the parents must ultimately be responsible for setting boundaries for their children so that those kids can grow up and be valuable members of the community. Where the community can assist is in providing more accessible parenting programs, and identifying and enforcing attendance in cases where children display behavior problems, including eating disorders (whether that be obesity or under-eating, bulimia, etc.).
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Mums United July 12, 2012
So we all know it’s important to be a healthy weight, but with so many conflicting health recommendations out there, it’s pretty difficult to know which ones you should be following.
If you are looking for healthy eating and activity advice, Mums United has plenty of practical ideas for parents that won’t cost heaps of cash, take loads of time or drain all the fun out of your weekend. Try some of our yummy recipes, tips and tools:
http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/mumsunited -
amd July 12, 2012
Of course it is the fault of the parents. However, I would like to know about the other factors which were involved in these decisions. As the article stated, allowing your child to become dangerously obese can be a symptom of other issues. DOCS are abused if they do not step in, they are abused if they do. We simply cannot judge why the children were removed, based on the information we have been given.
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Lorelle July 12, 2012
I absolutely agree with you. We are all way too quick to judge Human Services organisations based on one small snippet of a story.
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Peta Levett July 12, 2012
I agree with Quiet, and hope that counselling took place and an attempt was made to educate parents about proper nutrition, before the children were removed from their parents’ care.
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Susan July 12, 2012
Annoyed, I like your idea.
Compulsory nutritional education and classes on food buying, preparation and meal planning would be so much better than splitting families.
Any parent who lets a child get as obese as the examples above surely is doing it out of ignorance rather than neglect, at least I hope so.
Education matters so much. -
The Huntress July 12, 2012
No, child obesity does not equate child abuse.
Obesity is more likely to be a symptom of the families socioeconomic circumstances. Lower income, less education etc. are likely reasons as to how children are becoming obese in the home.
If the issue is being raised within a family it would be more appropriate to refer the family to a multi-disciplinary team including their GP, dieticians, physiotherapists, nurses, occupational therapists, etc. to teach them how to manage their weight and give them the education, skills and tools needed to raise their children healthily. Removing children from their families is distressing for all parties, counter-productive, expensive and time consuming. It’s not necessarily going to help the child to lose weight.
Rather than laying blame, as a society we should be taking positive, assertive action that empowers families to make the changes for better health – not removing children from their loved ones and homes.
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Akat July 12, 2012
It is all good saying the community should make available the parenting courses and information but the people who attend these tend to be the ones who already know a lot about it and want to see if there is more to learn. The one who need to go don’t anyway. My daughter suffers with hyperactivity and I did all the work myself to learn about a better diet for her, before I did I had no idea about how bad some food was. Perhaps it should be made mandatory for all pregnant women to attend a nutrition course that’s longer than one day. Or maybe the government should just step in and limit the amount of added sugar in everyday grocery items. There’s more there than should be
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GB July 12, 2012
Yes it is the parents’ responsibility to teach them good habits, but once they start receiving pocket money then, lets face it, most kids will want to spend it on junk food because it is EVERYWHERE and it is CHEAP. Have you picked up a supermarket brochure lately? Most of it is filled with junk/processed food, often at very low prices. Even a lot of
food advertised as healthy is not really healthy. Most mums I know have no idea that they are feeding their children MSG and trans-fats on a daily basis because the products say ‘all natural’. Yes, parents need to teach their children about nutrition and to lead by example (which is tough, oh yeah), but at the end of the day if the unhealthy food is everywhere around us and is very affordable then there is constant temptation. There are many countries in the world whose people still eat extremely healthy diets and enjoy their food. We should be looking to those countries for guidance. I believe that until unhealthy food is restricted or made far more expensive then we will continue to have an obesity problem. -
Miss Lollipip July 12, 2012
If this only occurred because of severe obesity, I would suggest that traumatising children by removing them will make their emotional eating problems WORSE.
Emotional eating is a huge cause of obesity, and I’m sure this applies to children too.
Second, what are parents supposed to do once their children are over a certain age? Lock the fridge? Apply a muzzle?
Should we remove children who are anorexic because their parents don’t force feed them?
We take a “therapeutic” approach to one, but a punitive approach to the other.
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Shannon July 12, 2012
I’m going to put myself out on limb here and say food doesn’t make you obese, judgemental comments (and thoughts) and a lack of compassion do. I don’t care what “package” you come in, you are beautiful and perfect, just the way you are.
And if people would stop judging, criticising,and otherwise contributing to peoples low self-worth the world would be a much better and healthier place. And I for one am not buying into it anymore. xxoo -
Annie Also July 12, 2012
I agree with Miss Lollipop and Shannon.
We do not remove children who are anorexic, we give support and help. But ‘fat’ is the new common enemy…now the brunt of jokes and name calling.
I like the comment by Shannon that ‘I for one am not buying into it anymore’.
I am fat.
I did not have fat children.
However one of my children (29 years old) now says my lack of self esteem affected her….No one can see that…I am sorry for that..and am now ( a little too late) working on that part of myself…I am leaving my ‘fat’ worries to another life, and working on liking myself. Maybe what follows may be I will not be so fat…if not….no matter…I have been fighting this for all my life and now I too am ‘done’….it is about my sense of self, not my ‘fat’. -
Beth July 12, 2012
I agree that ultimately it is up to the parents to set a good example with food and exercise, and to discuss the consequences of food choices with children at a level they can understand. But parents loose their way too, things can become overwhelming and I assume, seeing as noone died on the spot of a full belly, parents of obese children think it is something they will deal with as soon as they can figure out how to deal with it.
Do any parents of school age children know what is being taught in schools these days regarding food, exercise, self esteem, body image etc? When i was in school it was a special topic for a few weeks before moving on to another topic. Has this become as important/ as maths, reading etc? Does education on this now start earlier?
By the way … I know of plenty of “normal” families where one child is worryingly overweight and the other children are a healthy weight. Or one child is very underweight and the others healthy.
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Cate July 12, 2012
If the children were just removed due to obesity, then I think that’s disgusting. There are so many children in violent, abusive, scary households that DoCS can’t keep up with them all. Parents of obese children need guidance and support, not this kind of draconian nonsense.
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B.H. July 12, 2012
I was an obese child. I am an obese adult. My parents weren’t fat. My siblings aren’t fat. We lived on a farm out of town so I didn’t have access to junk food or fast food. My school was small and didnt have a canteen. I caught the bus directly from school to home where I rode 3km each way from the bus stop to home. I have done WW. I have done every diet under the sun. I have a lap band. I am STILL fat. My kids aren’t fat. I eat the same things they do. Should I have been removed from my parents because of my weight? Should they have been criticised and judged because of my weight? No. People need to butt out and mind their own damn business. Obesity has been cited in TWO child protection cases in the last year. TWO. Do you have any idea how many thousands of case they deal with each year? Two cases would be less than 1%.
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Karen July 12, 2012
Obviously the obesity issue is just the tip of the iceberg in these cases. There are quite obviously a lot more issues at play here. My understanding of dhs, is they are there to support families and to help families work through their issues. They DO NOT take kids from families willy nilly; it is only people who are unfamiliar with their role who could possibly think that.
Otherwise, it is definitely a parents responsibility to feed their children healthy and nutritious food. There can be no excuses, in our society we have information overload regarding what is healthy food and what is not – it’s not rocket science – if you fill your cupboards with healthy food then your kids will have to choose from that. -
thefeminist July 13, 2012
Considering the increasing number of obese children I think we need a community effort and the help should be postive and not set out to paint parents as primarily responsible for the situation. We live surrounded by abundance and we are manipulated to over consume via a barage of advertising and the hectic demands and expectations of everyday life. Rampant capitalism and the consumer culture it promotes – a culture that apparently we are not allowed to regulate in the interests of children, holds the power. I think the health and well being of children should take precedence over proifit and greed. There is way too much protection of corporate interests and the sad attack on parents just serves as a deflection. It would help to legislate in favour of good health and eating – to work for the good of the group rather than being shouted down by neoliberal tactics of choice and individual rights. The latter largely serves to make the rich richer and the majority good, thoughtless shoppers at the expense of our children’s health.
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Paperwhite July 13, 2012
It all depends on whether the parent is capable of making decisions. People with impairments have children too
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kid July 13, 2012
Amazed to be saying it again: your children are your responsibility. Of course there are other factors, but when you see young children who are obese, parents must accept that they have a responsibility to that child. Saying “It’s his/her metabolism”, “It runs in the family”, etc are just excuses for giving up before they’ve tried.
I think people will find that neglect was the real reason these children were taken, and their obesity only one of several things cited as indications of that neglect. We don’t have the whole story, and despite DOCS’ best efforts to treat this sensitively (remember, the families of these kids watch the news and read the paper too) the media have run with the most insensitive, controversial angle they could find.
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Lady Jewels Diva July 13, 2012
I don’t know if it really could be labelled as child abuse but a child being overweight is DEFINITELY the parent’s fault. They are the one’s buying the food, bringing it into the house, watching their child eat and eat and eat and then they end up like this.
I think people also need to stop saying parents are uneducated. I don’t think they are unless they are extremely stupid. There are plenty of shows, magazines, books etc to read or watch to understand you are making your child fat.
There is no excuse these days, you buy the food YOU make your kid fat.
And as for the “authorities” taking your child away, yeah, just give them more mental issues to deal with, the government are morons!
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anita July 13, 2012
Some families are poor and unfortunately the cheap junk food is all they can afford. Healthy eating is a much better option as we all know, but some families cant afford it. Sometimes even with two parents working they are struggling. Cost of fuel, housing, medical, dental, everything. Its sad and its sad for the parents, dont be so quick to jump in and judge, probably highly paid public servants making the most stink and fuss about it.
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Pushkina July 13, 2012
We used to foster through DOCs.- they are all idiots.
What kind of policy dictates removing a child because of obesity but bends over backwards to keep an infant/toddler in a family which consisted of a heroin addicted mother who is also a ‘sex worker’ and a heroin addicted father who beats both mother and child? -
shelley July 16, 2012
Interesting bunch of responses, arguably people who read The Hoopla are an interested and caring lot of people. The newspaper article gave a ‘pinhole’ view of this case, who knows what the real mitigating circumstances for the removal of the child might be. Maybe DOCs look at their case individually and there would be incongruencies in their decision making, they are people too after all.
BUT the right to bear children means being responsible for them, making sure their clothes are clean and their teeth and their bums, making sure they eat well and learn well and so on infinitum and I think there are parents out there who don’t care to do all these things. It is hard not to judge. Childhood obesity is a first world problem. But where to begin…..
