Fat Kids

[sickofmorons]

Should parents who feed their kids rubbish food making them fat, causing their quality of life to be drastically reduced, inflicting disablity and shortening their lifespan be charged with Child Cruelty? I think you know my view- whats yours?

[PhilBy]

Yes! I can't believe how many parants I know who complain about their hyper children but insist on feeding them e additive laden food/sweets............ pure madness!

[noxlumos]

Well our kids generally eat what we do, which is lots of organic stuff and fruit and generally just a good balanced diet and they have been brought up with that, however we have no rules ( other than use your common sense) in our house whatsoever so the kids have open and unlimited acess to sweets, crisps, pop etc, but they CHOOSE not to eat them themselves, so clearly kids a. have enough savvy to know what's bad for them and avoid it and b. they learn this from their parents. Therefore it would be beneficial if people who have a dietry problem themselves addressed this before they have kids as clearly if they don't then all that will happen is that their negative diet will be relearned by their children and passed on, so I feel in serious cases it would be helpful for the parents to obtain help in changing their own life patterns. You can't take a kid away from the parent it loves because that parent or the child is fat, so people need help to overcome possibly the biggest addiction on the planet....bad food.My family are Irish and they see loving you as feeding you, my wife's family are Jewish and they feed people too! You have to get round complex sociological issues before you'll tackle obesity properly but generally I don't believe people should be punished for being fat, although they do need help to make sure that doesn't follow on to their kids.

[puzzled54]

But why are the companies still producing that kind of rubbis food?????????

[PhilBy]

Becuase people buy it by the ton puzzled54!

[sickofmorons]

noxlumos- so should we take that approach to other forms of child abuse such as hitting kids- it could be argued that that has wider sociological issues surrounding it, but at the end of the day they are both harming children.

[Ward-Minter]

Up until the age of ten it sounds like a good idea. However after 10 the child should be responsible. If the age of criminal responsibility is 10 then surely the age of eating should be the same.

The child chooses to stuff his fat face full of Kit Kat as opposed to fruit so on his chubby little shoulders be it.

There is ALWAYS a choice somewhere.

[noxlumos]

No, it's happened again, I agree with ward-minter.

sickofmorons I do understand your point, especially since my own father used to seriously physically abuse me on an almost daily basis, but yes, obviously all forms of child abuse need to be not only treated at sympton but at source.I'm not suggesting we all have a group hug and it'll all be better or anything so simplistic but all forms of negative living need addressing in the best way that is possible and in my own opinion removing children from parents who overfeed them is not an option. Cruelty charges would be generally morally inappropriate although I have seen some rare cases where they would have been most appropriate.You can't have a master race of perfectly svelt people, where do you draw the line?It's a dangerous area to start exploring.Some people enjoy their junk food so much they don't want to be slim and healthy and if they pay their taxes then who am I to argue with their life choices? We need to inform and tackle at source but I am still essentially mainly against prosecutions for cruelty as cruelty is rarely the motivation to feed.

[sickofmorons]

noxlumus- you are assuming I am refering to overfeeding, sometimes it's just feeding babdly, a small quantity of bad food will have a far greater negative effect than a large amount of good food. Also your point about people enjoying their junk food, aside from them just being plain repulsive to look at, they are also a massive drain on our economy- if they pain taxes equivalent to the amount they use things like the NHS for replacement joints because their frame has ruined the ones nature gave to them, meaning genuinely deserving arthritus sufferers are in the same que and have to wait longer is by no means fair.

[noxlumos]

Well yeah you have some fairly valid points, but it's none of my concern how someone else chooses to look ( and it shouldn't be yours either to be honest), nor do I begrudge fat people their treatment on the NHS, because if I did so I would have to, since you are discussing fairness, begrudge people who drink liver transplants( I don't drink much), who smoke treatment for cancer (I don't smoke), joggers treatment for sprains and breaks and sooner or later everyone would be excluded for treatment for some reason or other. I ride horses and motorbikes for fun, if I fall off and break my neck I expect to be treated because I pay NI contributions and I don't expect you to say "Oh yeah, but I don't ride, so I don't want him treated" which is where arguments like this end.

As to overfeeding/feeding the wrong food, you can only educate, you can't force people to take on board what you are saying to them. To attempt otherwise in a free society would be wrong and although I find the topic interesting enough to discuss I would never dream of attempting to inflict my opinions, such as they are on anyone else. Far more important than obesity really is people's right to be obese if they so choose.As ward-minter said earlier, there is always an element of chocie in everything and in a free society choice has to be accepted whether anyone else likes it or not.

[sickofmorons]

Noxlumos- Fair points.However I am a skydiver- but I pay for private insurance to ensure that if I were to have an accident I would be taken care of without draining the state through my own lets face it stupidity. I fail to see how people who sit and eat themselves to death are in the same catagoury. There are ceritian risks in everyday life which is what the NHS is for, and for caring for those with long term health problems through no fault of their own, but as far as I am concerned if you make the descision to smoke, eat fatty foods constantly and drink to the kind of excesses people like George Best did then you have made your descision- maybe they should give private healthcare vouchers away with microchips/ Superkings/ Tennants Super! But seriously should people incapable of making sensible descisions be granted that choice if it has a negative impact on other peoples quality of life?

[joko]

i think all parent should be forced to go on some kind of course - just a few sessions to explain the basics.

I mean how many people remember what they were taught in childcare and development at school when they are 14? who cares at that age? I am lucky that i have a lot of common sense and remember lots of stuff i read and learn, but not everyone does.

and i not suggesting some regimented testing. i mean teach what they actually need to know. i remember learning about gestation and how the baby is made and how big the baby is at each month etc etc etc but not once was i shown how to change a nappy, test a bottle temperature, what cradle cap is, how to wind, when to wean, how to treat sore nipples, etc etc

and nothing at all was taught about them getting older!

i don't even have kids but even i can see that preparation for parenthood is lacking