Welcome to another week.
A letter from a member of the public in Brighton’s Argus newspaper has suggested councils should take seriously overweight children into care, as the phenomenon amounted to child neglect and abuse.
Mike Howard, from Greentree’s Crescent, in Sompting told the Argus that while the measure sounded draconian, it was the only way “to seriously address the problem”, and that Sally Davies, the former Chief Medical Officer for England, had offered a pointless solution to the issue in placing a ban on eating while on public transport.
Mr Howard said:
“A seriously overweight child is prima facia evidence of child neglect by the parents and should be treated as such. Feckless parents, who are clearly neglecting their child’s welfare need to be offered training on health and nutrition, which it would be reasonable to expect them to pay for, followed by a period of monitoring of their child’s health.
If, at the end of this period there is no improvement in the child’s well-being then the possibility of taking the child into care should be seriously considered.”
Research tells us that children can become overweight for a variety of reasons, including genetics, a lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of these factors. In some cases, becoming overweight can be caused by medical conditions.
Our question this week then, is just this: do you agree with Mr. Howard?
Researching Reform 
Hi Natasha, I am a fairly regular user of this site and I just want to point out that the Mike Howard in this article is not me and in no way do I agree with his comments, my opinion is that the care system is broken and has been infiltrated by people with very dubious motives. Every effort should be made to keep children with their families, care should be a last resort when all other options have been thoroughly explored.
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In a word, No! Taking an overweight child into care because he or she is overweight would almost inevitably lead to severe emotional damage to the child, not only by the act of being taken away from the parents but also by further stigmatising that child because of his or her weight. Can these people ever take a slighter wider view than the one immediately confronting them? I agree with R.R.’s view and with Mike Howard (above).
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Of course they say fat kids should be taken into care ! Fat kids =even more profits for the greedy fostering and adoption agencies declare millions of £s profits every year .
Anything goes when it comes to increasing the numbers of children and babies snatched for profit !
And talking of babies …..The Number of newborn babies in care proceedings has doubled in Wales since 2015
Nuffield Family Justice Observatory publishes new report
The number of newborn babies subject to care proceedings in Wales (per 10,000 births) more than doubled between 2015 and 2018. In 2015, for every 10,000 births in Wales 39 newborns became the subject of care proceedings within two weeks of birth. By 2018, the rate had risen to 83 cases per 10,000 births.
“Take them at birth and take them if fat “it is all CASH IN THE BANK !!
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I could go with a plethora of reasons, but the short answer will suffice – Do I agree – NO.
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Child Obesity is not so easy to tackle when the parents themselves are Obese but removing children from their parents is not the answer.
Ministers would most likely look at what will cost less in the long run, allow Children to stay obese then foot the bill for their health problems later on via the NHS or place children in long term foster care.
the fostering sector is unlikely to see this as an angle for more business.
Health education and better legislation to outlaw the production of Junk foods is the way forward.
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Typo!
that should read
the fostering sector is likely to see this as an angle for more business.
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Obesity is a complex problem and child obesity is not just a question of parental misfeeding https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-10-childhood-obesity-linked-differences-key.html?fbclid=IwAR3pSZzhH3SbMURIyxeeTt46aKm-OxH0OdZ7IBxKMuxSXNx4gl6S4ScAizA
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