Is child obesity - abuse???

[Nosha123]

ANyone here think that to allow your child to become overweight and obese is NOT child abuse?
Surely if under-feeding your child is classed as malnutrition and child abuse how come the polar opposite is not true too. WHy can parents of very overweight children be allowed to continue with their lifestyle when they are effectively killing them?

[lozzylou]

i believe that if the child has medical problems causing them to be over weight then that cant be helped but as for the others, it is down to the children. it is a bitrder to control as they get to teenage years as they will get junk food from somewhere else. but when i see toddlers that can hardly run about as they are obese it is very sad and is down to what there parens feed them. so i do think it is child abuse in a way.
my two boys aged 2 and 3 eat like horses but thety are not over weight in any way, it is just as quick and easy to give a child a piece of fruit as it is to give them a packet of crisp so there is no excuse for kids having a very bad diet

[Diz]

It depends, somebody who purposefully underfeeds a child obviously needs prosecuting for child neglect. Overfeeding a child as you say can kill a child but I don't think anybody does that to be cruel or unkind they're just misguided obviously if they are purposefully overfeeding a child they need prosecuting too. Also i'd like to point out that not everybody who is obese eats too much - there can be medical reasons why somebody is overweight and everybody is different, in my family of four sisters two have always been thin and two have always struggled with their weight, my youngest sister cannot seem to loose weight no matter what she does and she does not over eat. Difficult question but as with everything it depends on the circumstances nothing is as straight forward as we would like.

[sleepyj]

yeah its just as bad as underfeeding ..i know some one that has let her kids get massive feeding them junk food all the time .. poor kids she is killing them 10 years old and 14 stone .

[Nosha123]

If someone underfeeds their child = child abuse.. caused by ignorance....

If someone overfeeds their child = STILL child abuse.. the child can die from BOTH... = again caused by ignorance.

As for the argument that fat people are only fat from medical problems.. that has been PROVEN to the majority of fat people to be total TWADDLE. They are fat because they consume MORE calories than they burn. SImple maths. Yes there are some who have thyroid problems.. but they are the absolute MINORITY. The more active you are the faster your metabolism.
I know someone who has to very very fat kids.. they live on fizzy drinks, chips and takeaways. and do NO exercise or after school activities... whose to blame? Well its not the kids!

[annie0000]

Its the old issue of who does the shopping - if 6 year old overweight kids are overeating and underexercising, the blame lies at their parents door - if the 6 year olds are doing the weekly shop then that's another form of child abuse!

At the end of day, he minority of medical conditions excepted, if you are overweight its because you are eating to much and not moving enough.

[Nosha123]

Hear Hear Annie!!!

[pinktwink]

i agree parents that allow their children become medically obese are not ensuring the childs overall healthand welfare aside from the medical aspects many obese children are bullied at school therefore i consider it abuse.