Let’s commence with the doctor, as he is the one who sparked the controversy in this instance. David Ludwig operates an obesity clinic where, a decade ago, he became aware of a young girl who was just three years old.
At least, that’s what she should have been.
Tragically, this poor child weighed almost 44 kilos at that age…three times the normal weight for her peers…and exhibited no inclination to reduce her intake of French fries.
By the time she turned 12 last year, her weight had escalated to a perilous 185 kg, accompanied by serious health issues like diabetes and elevated blood pressure. It’s safe to assume her self-esteem wasn’t in the best shape.
After being taken from Dr. Ludwig’s clinic in Massachusetts, U.S., state authorities relocated the girl to foster care; there, she received three light meals daily, some snacks, and an adequate amount of physical activity.
Consequently, she shed 60 kilos in her first year. Currently, she is still on track to lose more weight, and this week Dr. Ludwig referenced her situation to bolster his argument that, amid the obesity epidemic plaguing the Western world, all overweight children should be placed into care.
The backlash against his suggestion is not surprising.
In Australia, while our situation is not as severe as in the U.S. and the UK, we often complain, typically with good reason, about the interference of the Nanny State. It sends chills down our spine when social workers intrude upon family life with flimsy justifications.
Moreover, we have been conditioned from an early age to believe that ‘mother knows best’, and many of us hold firmly to this belief as we raise our own children.
Even when we occasionally feel utterly lost about parenting, we are extremely reluctant to admit it.
Even if a mother is inadvertently harming her children with her overly indulgent choices, it feels counterintuitive for her to accept critiques regarding her role in the fundamental task of nurturing.
I do have a certain sympathy for some of these well-meaning but misguided parents…though many do not share this view. For instance, Tam Fry, chairman of Britain’s Child Growth Foundation, expresses his opinions quite bluntly; he characterizes the act of overstuffing children as ‘a form of child abuse’.
“Children are vulnerable,” he states. “If they are served food and told to finish everything on their plate, they will eat it…and without exercise, they will continue to gain weight.”
Some social workers have also been quite straightforward, categorizing overfeeding as neglect and using this classification as grounds for attempting to separate children from their parents.
In some instances, this process has already started, and while the confidentiality of family law courts prevents us from knowing the exact frequency, estimates suggest it may occur as many as 20 times in one year.
Indeed, some parents display outright neglect; those who replace an engaged parenting approach with six hours of screen time and a mound of chips. Yet, there are others striving to do their best.
Sometimes…especially when both parents are employed full-time…they may feel too exhausted to make that additional effort to take their child for a kickabout in the park after school, or to prepare fresh vegetables instead of frozen chips after a long day at work.
Occasionally, it’s a dangerous form of what I would refer to as misguided affection, whereby a child finds joy in sugary treats. Ultimately, however, it boils down to lazy, uninformed parents who prefer to yield rather than confront and resolve the issue.
by Susan Floyd
