Ohio Child Taken From Home For Obesity

Perhaps rather than put the child in foster care where the child is likely to have poorly chosen and state-funded food, the state (or even better, federal) government could begin teaching parents and children alike about what causes obesity and how to stop it. What if you were in the parents shoes? Can you imagine destroying your child's self-esteem and then attempting to get the child to put in... the hours of exercise it would take to lose that amount of excess weight. This is really outrageous. If the government cannot provide correct information about food and nutrition, they should not provide any, and they most definitely should not be allowed to remove children from homes that are destroyed by their ignorant food guidelines!

State-funded nutrition advice... yeah great idea. Let's serve a child that is at risk of developing diabetes and numerous and countless other medical problems 9 to 11 servings of whole grains a day!

I do not think that all foster care is bad, however, the state has no business trying to step in in this situation. If the parents had found a doctor that was willing to look into the real problem behind this (they are VERY hard to find), ...then perhaps this problem could have already resolved. We educate our doctors in a way that leads to a prescription-dependent population. What if we actually wanted the population to be healthy and happy? It could be amazing how wealthy and powerful this country could be in the coming years; rather we have overworked people who do not feel satisfied, do not read, have poor information and a wealth of "healthy" inexpensive food readily available and easily made. Then, we allow stores to drive up the cost of whole foods.

Undoubtedly, there are supporters of removing the overweight Ohio child from his home and placing him in foster care, why wouldn't there be in a society shuns people who are even at a healthy weight as being fat..., but how are we going to decide which of the 33% of overweight children in America will need to be removed from their homes?  Will this be based on a percentage perhaps their BMI or a number of pounds overweight?  Are there going to be an equal number of people go to the office and begin paperwork to become foster parents today?

How are we going to make sure that we do not keep children who need medical care from the doctor?
Just a little bit more food for thought... Should we also remove children from homes that have any exposure to third party smoke due to their possible development of cancer, bronchitis, asthma? What about the many other health problems children in the US are exposed to on a daily basis that give them the risk of developing some disease?

Obesity (though presented as one) is not a disease in itself, it's a symptom of a generally undiscovered health problem, physical or psychological.