Last week Harvard obesity specialist David Ludwig advocated putting children in temporary foster care when the child is found to be obese. The obvious conclusion being, that in his opinion, allowing your child to get to the stage of obesity equates to a form of child abuse.
I don’t agree with this statement or the measures advocated by Mr. Ludwig. And more importantly I think the debate will distract rather than positively influence what is a very important issue. I appreciate the words of Dr. Arthur Caplan, the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote:
“I am not letting parents off the hook,” he wrote in response to the article, “but putting the blame for childhood obesity on the home and then arguing that moving kids out of homes where obesity reigns is the answer is short-sighted and doomed to fail. We need the nation to go on a diet together and the most important places to start are the grocery store, schools and media.”
My only query on the above quote is why he omitted “home”. Surely “home” is the most important place to start a change of habits. Not just in what is eaten, but how food is eaten. It is sad to hear of the demise of family dinners. Surely the television and computers can be switched off for half-an-hour every evening.
Tags: Custody, David Ludwig, Dieting, Diets, Dr. Arthur Caplan, Education, Foster Care, Health, life, News, Nutrition, Obesity, Parenting
Topical Teaching 
July 18, 2011 at 12:51 am |
I like your observation. Politicians and educational bureaucrats terrified of offending people (re: parents) find it safer to attack schools, media, government itself, etc. than to say that parents need to take more responsibility for raising healthy kids. Helping parents do this is also important–providing fresh foods and vouchers for fresh foods rather than crap would be a good start. Schools do need to take some blame, too, since P.E., which used to be a mandatory part of every child’s schooling has virtually disappeared.
July 18, 2011 at 1:50 am |
I am constantly after my daughter for feeding little kids Mac and BK. It’s the salt and fat that is inside us that causes serious problems later beyond just waistline, esp cardio vasc..
July 18, 2011 at 2:02 am |
Foster care is an extreme measure that will do more harm than good in most cases. However, parents have a responsibility for the well-being of their children and some form of less destructive and intrusive intervention may be warranted. By analogy, few would consider it acceptable for the parents to allow the children to intoxicate themselves on Friday evening—even though this may be less harmful. (The relative harm will obviously depend on the involved quantities and, possibly, the age of the child in question.)