The story of a 5-year-old girl in the United Kingdom has my head spinning a little. You see, she was taken away from her parents in August of 2012 by social workers because she was too fat. I don't mean just slightly overweight. I mean this child was weighing in at over 140 pounds when the typical weight for girls her age according to pediatric experts in her area is 42 pounds. Her weight was clearly a danger to her health, I get it, but should she have been taken from her parents because of it? Was there really no other way to get her to a healthy weight?
Read more ¿Qué más?: The dangers of being a fat child
A child does not wake up one morning morbidly obese. It takes time to gain that kind of weight. How is it possible that no one intervened earlier? Did doctors, caregivers, and teachers not notice? My baby brother was really fat as an infant, I mean REALLY fat and the doctor brought it up and monitored his weight and health. He ended up being a normal weight soon enough.
It just pains me to think that any child would have to be taken away from their parents because of their weight, but it also makes me angy that parents would let their child get that ridiculously overweight. It's not right.
The little girl in question has dropped around 30 pounds since she was taken away from her parents. She is still dangerously overweight, but she is making progress. I don't know the details, but I hope she has been able to stay in contact with her parents and extended family.
Her story touches me because there is a child in my extended family who is significantly overweight. He's also just really BIG for his age, like super tall and big boned, but no doubt about it he is fat and always has been. Yes, family members advocate for his weight to go down and truth be told he is growing into his girth, but it would have been devastating if he had been taken away at the age of 5 because of his weight.
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