Is Allowing Your Children to Get Obese Child Neglect?

Question

If you are fat and you feed your kids so much that they become dangerously obese, is it child neglect?

Answer 1

Considering all the other factors that may be involved (metabolism and genetics, for example, as well as medications that the child may be on are just a few), you may consider it a very far reaching form of neglect.

But here is the other side of the issue. How could you do anything about it?

At any given moment, any Dept of Human Services worker has approximately 100 cases pending on their desk, and they have to be prioritized by severity. These cases range from outright abuse by torture, attempted murder, rape, group rape, and any other acts too sordid for the mind to imagine. Starvation and chains were on the list just last week in a neighboring county, and a 15 year old boy who weighed something like 40 pounds.

How will you prioritize a child who eats too much against those kinds of physical abuse? How will the case worker decide that a chubby child is in danger when held up to a child who is chained in a cage without food and water for weeks?

It won't measure up, and the odds of it ever becoming a huge landmark issue are pretty slim. The best we could hope for is educating the parents in proper nutrition and exercise.

Answer 2

yes! I think it is mean of a parent to let their child become obese just because they have bad eating habits. I feel for people who have medical problems-eat healthy and still stay big but lets face I most people are just fat. They go to fast food places and hit the snack foods in the grocery store. I see people who have a 1 yr old child and say it is from having a baby- NO WAY!!! Get off your fat butt and exercise. I have 5 kids and I came right back down quick just by walking right after the birth of my children. Then when I could I did tae bo (still do) and I look good.

Answer 3

If that's the reason they are obese, then yes. It is child neglect. And it is the parent's fault.
However, there are other ways people gain weight. Not every obese person eats potato chips and candy all day. And unless anyone knows for a fact that someone is obese because they eat too much, people shouldn't judge.

Answer 4

It depends on the context of the situation. There have been a few times where, yes, they have tried to charge the parents with abuse. (Although parental weight has absolutely nothing to do with it.) B ut you have to keep in mind knowledge, money, and other medical conditions the child may have. One child they tried to charge the parents with abuse over just had a really slow metabolism. Doctors examined her, a nutritionist visited their house, and there wasn't really anything wrong wih the way they ate. So there are a lot of factors involved. Parental weight not being one of them.

I think if you know about problems the food you are feeding your kids, you have the money to buy them nutritional food, and there is nothing medically wrong with your child, then it is definitely lazy parenting. I ride the fence on the abuse or neglect or not argument. I can see both sides. The same arguments, of course, being used for parents who smoke.

Answer 5

For those of you who say it's abuse, do you smoke, do you drink then you should be charged with neglect or endangerment because children of parents who smoke are in danger of health issues and children of parents who drink are at risk for being drinkers. Stands to reason if your going to tell parents that have a weight problem that they are being bad parents then the same holds true for parents who smoke or drink or even who put other things ahead of their kids. I was born to a mother who was heavy, she was 340 when I was born, my father was 300 and i was heavy as a child, I am now 244 and work to pay my way, pay all my household and business bills and live a healthy and clean life. I am a minister and work with many parents who have heavy kids who are heavy themselves. Does that make them bad parents I think not. I have raised one son, 25 years old now and a healthy daughter who is soon to be 4. My wife weighs 300 pounds and is the salt of the earth to me. Is she a bad mother because our daughter is chunky, Heck no, she is the most loving mother to our kids a husband can ask for, so I take great acception to saying parents who are heavy with heavy children are neglectful or endangering the lives of our children. Move on next subject.

Answer 6

I don't think it is neglect, but it certainly is bad parenting. However, I think most of the time the parents don't realize they are contributing to their child's bad health. If they are obese, it is because they are not eating properly and they feed their children whatever they eat. It certainly doesn't mean they don't love their children.

Answer 7

No.

Your question is filled with wrong assumpions.

That said, if you are obese and have it in the family, you should look at the G.I. diet books which involve reducing insulin intake in the food s you eat while eating healthy meals that make you full.

Answer 8

i would same it is more child endangerment . You should always try to feed your child healthy no matter what size you are . How many kids do you see out there now days already have breathing problems or heart problems due to there size . come on there kids let them have a life . As a parent it is your job to keep there health in check .

Answer 9

It is a form of neglect as well as child endangerment. Good eating habits are formed at a young age!

Answer 10

I'm not fat and neither is my husband my older son is slightly over weight meaning he could lose maybe 8lbs what I dont' understand is that my younger son is a stick and the school tells me he is fat!!!