Harvard Researchers- remove obese children from Their Homes?

[Trajan]

that god damn Bachmann, always intruding into.....uhm wait...

in all seriousness, beats me; we feed them 2 and now 3 meals a day at select schools as well. I don't think removing kids form their parents is the answer.



Harvard Researchers Want Fat Kids Taken from Their Homes

By John Hudson
Updated: July 13, 2011 | 12:59 p.m.
July 13, 2011 | 12:10 a.m.

As the Western world gets fatter and fatter, the solutions to slimming it down get ever more draconian. In Britain yesterday, the government issued guidelines saying "children under the age of 5, including babies who can’t walk yet, should exercise every day." Today, in the States, a pair of Harvard scholars writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association advocate stripping away the custody rights of parents of super obese children. They're for real!


"Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention, it may sometimes be necessary to protect a child," said Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard's School of Public Health. The study's co-author, David Ludwig, says taking away peoples' children "ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible." Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital, said his eureka moment was when a 90-pound, 3-year-old girl entered his obesity clinic a number of years ago," reports Lindsey Tanner at the Associated Press.

Her parents had physical disabilities, little money and difficulty controlling her weight. Last year, at age 12, she weighed 400 pounds and had developed diabetes, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.

"Out of medical concern, the state placed this girl in foster care, where she simply received three balanced meals a day and a snack or two and moderate physical activity," he said. After a year, she lost 130 pounds. Though she is still obese, her diabetes and apnea disappeared; she remains in foster care, he said.

But not so fast! The academic world isn't in agreement.

more at-

Harvard Researchers Want Fat Kids Taken from Their Homes - John Hudson - NationalJournal.com

 

[ERdoc]

Uh-oh, this is tricky, eh? On the one hand most of us in health care are getting really tired of the chronic illnesses that can be prevented, and so there's a tendency to go over board and start advocating things like removing fat kids from their home. The amount of money spent on fat, ignorant, stupid, smoking, alcoholic people is, at least from an ER doc's perspective, outrageous.

I'm tired of seeing the same people over and over and over again for their uncontrolled diabetes, congestive heart failure, and chronic breathing problems. Most of these people have primary physicians and health insurance. But our culture allows them to do as they please, following the path of least resistance, then coming to the ER to 'get fixed' with medications and attention. Then they go right back out there and continue their bad behaviours that brings them back again.

Obama's health plan has numerous ways to penalize physicians monetarily for not controlling chronic illnesses. But there's never been and seemingly never will be a penalty on the patient for being lazy and stupid about their own health.

We treat 'health insurance' as something else; a way to get other people to pay for our healthcare. In what other insurance category do we rely on insurance for basic maintenance? We don't use insurance to get new tires for our cars, repaint or re-roof our homes. Why is health so different? Why has it become the cultural expectation that there's some 'daddy' out there that will protect us from ourselves or from bad luck, no matter what the cost to that daddy?

I say dump Medicaid, let that generation to their own devices. Give the money towards education and maintenance of our children so that we start changing the culture. I don't want the government taking kids away from parents. But I'd like stipulations that require parents to keep their children healthy, not doctors. Parents should be fined for bad parenting, that might get everyone's attention. The fines could go towards healthcare for children and education.

 

[auditor0007]

Well, I can't support the idea of removing kids from their parents for not feeding them properly and not exercising them enough. Maybe we could force parents to take classes if their kids are grossly overweight. Not sure if there is a good answer here. One thing I would really like to see is having schools implement serious physical education classes on a daily basis for all students beginning in the first grade and continuing all the way through high school. To me, the lack of exercise is a bigger problem then what kids eat. A kid that gets enough exercise can burn off an awful lot of crap that they may eat. It also helps increase their metabolism (personal opinion).

 

[HenryBHough]

If one accepts the premise that the tendency to obesity is rooted in genetics then the answer is simple. Kill everybody you think is too fat. Do it quickly before they can reproduce. However, in moving about on your mission avoid mirrors lest your mission be compromised.

 

[Mad Scientist]

in all seriousness, beats me; we feed them 2 and now 3 meals a day at select schools as well. I don't think removing kids form their parents is the answer.

But they're Harvard graduates, they have to be smarter than us!

 

[Trajan]

in all seriousness, beats me; we feed them 2 and now 3 meals a day at select schools as well. I don't think removing kids form their parents is the answer.

But they're Harvard graduates, they have to be smarter than us!

 

[California Girl]

It's research.

Research asks questions - and considers solutions. I suspect that, on this occasion, this was raised as a potential solution. But it does not mean that it anyone is advocating removing children from their parents.

 

[mudwhistle]

that god damn Bachmann, always intruding into.....uhm wait...

in all seriousness, beats me; we feed them 2 and now 3 meals a day at select schools as well. I don't think removing kids form their parents is the answer.



Harvard Researchers Want Fat Kids Taken from Their Homes

By John Hudson
Updated: July 13, 2011 | 12:59 p.m.
July 13, 2011 | 12:10 a.m.

As the Western world gets fatter and fatter, the solutions to slimming it down get ever more draconian. In Britain yesterday, the government issued guidelines saying "children under the age of 5, including babies who can’t walk yet, should exercise every day." Today, in the States, a pair of Harvard scholars writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association advocate stripping away the custody rights of parents of super obese children. They're for real!


"Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention, it may sometimes be necessary to protect a child," said Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard's School of Public Health. The study's co-author, David Ludwig, says taking away peoples' children "ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible." Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital, said his eureka moment was when a 90-pound, 3-year-old girl entered his obesity clinic a number of years ago," reports Lindsey Tanner at the Associated Press.

Her parents had physical disabilities, little money and difficulty controlling her weight. Last year, at age 12, she weighed 400 pounds and had developed diabetes, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.

"Out of medical concern, the state placed this girl in foster care, where she simply received three balanced meals a day and a snack or two and moderate physical activity," he said. After a year, she lost 130 pounds. Though she is still obese, her diabetes and apnea disappeared; she remains in foster care, he said.

But not so fast! The academic world isn't in agreement.

more at-

Harvard Researchers Want Fat Kids Taken from Their Homes - John Hudson - NationalJournal.com

The libs are never satisfied.

First they start up feeding programs during the summer to fatten them up, then they want to yank the kids out of their homes when they get too fat.

 

[midcan5]

This sort of thing sure gets complicated, I watched a boy who lived several doors down from us die slowly from a debilitating disease that the family, because of religious beliefs left untreated. They hide him when social workers came or moved him. He helped me a few times working on tree removal or whatnot, and I, an old man by his standards could outwork him. Last I saw him he was laughing at my recumbent bicycle but he looked near death on the family porch. So I guess if we care about life do we care enough about these children in need?

 

[Obamerican]

This sort of thing sure gets complicated, I watched a boy who lived several doors down from us die slowly from a debilitating disease that the family, because of religious beliefs left untreated. They hide him when social workers came or moved him. He helped me a few times working on tree removal or whatnot, and I, an old man by his standards could outwork him. Last I saw him he was laughing at my recumbent bicycle but he looked near death on the family porch. So I guess if we care about life do we care enough about these children in need?

Parents keeping medical care from a child because of religious beliefs are unfit parents. Enuff said.

 

[Oscar Wao]

Typical Ivory Tower, pantywaist "inty-llectual" eugenics.

 

[LiberalHere]

What area are these kids from? Do they live in area high in crime? Children in high crime areas and city areas get less physical fitness than kids in suburbs and safer areas.

Are there ample supplies of fresh, healthy foods nearby? Reports show that poorer regions have less access to healthy foods incl. farmers markets and other fresh produce then suburban areas.

States are already struggling, adding more children to the foster cares system will depress already depressed state agencies.

Taking away a child should be carefully reviewed and a last resort in these cases IMHO.

 

[ShackledNation]

Stuff like this reminds me of Nazi Germany "Volksgemeinschaft" mentality. I am not talking about killing Jews, or saying Harvard is Nazi Germany. I am just saying relying so heavily on government intervention for the solution is reminiscent of the Nazi obsession with forcing health upon its citizens.

 

[Oscar Wao]

Shackled, eugenics has been practically a core doctrine of the progressive wing of academia for ages.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Child welfare investigators determine neglect and/or abuse per established legal criteria. No one would object to a child being removed from an abusive home where the child is malnourished to the point of starvation. If obesity manifest itself to the point of a serious illness, an accusation of abuse is not that far-fetched.