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Fat child taken into care

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Fat child taken into care Empty Fat child taken into care

Post by Lou Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:25 pm

A six-year-old Derby boy has been taken into care partly for being overweight, it has been revealed.

It is the first time obesity has been listed by social services in the city as one of the reasons for taking a child away from their family.

The case emerged as figures showed one in four 10 and 11-year-olds in Derby are classified as obese or overweight.

But city council officials said weight would never be the primary factor in taking a child into care.

Health plans

The figures, taken from measurements made in schools, were part of a national survey but became public after a BBC Freedom of Information request.

While unable to comment on the case directly, cabinet member for children and young people Les Allen, emphasised many factors were considered before social services intervened.

"Being overweight would not be the determining factor in taking any child in to local authority care.

"The primary reason for taking a child into care is because where they are is not the best place for them, they are likely to be vulnerable and they will be safer and happier in local authority care."

No other specific details were available.

'Last resort'

Health managers said they were taking action to stop the number of overweight children from increasing further.

John Topham from NHS Derby City said: "We are trying to, and are working with other agencies in the city, to increase activity levels and improve healthy eating.

"But those are going to take time to come into being and will take time to change the tide."

Dr Colin Waine, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said taking a child into care over its weight was a huge step.

"Such action should only be considered in the absolute last resort - indeed it might be an indication of a failure of systems that should have been in place before this circumstance arose.

"The emphasis must be on prevention and early intervention to educate mothers on healthy nutrition and monitoring of the child's development."


I dont know whether I agree with this or not. I can understand that the child is unhealthy and needs help. but there has to be more to it than that.

There has always been fat kids, and always been very skinny kids, but I dont think its something that can be regulated by social services. A lot of being overweight is from diet, but I do believe that genetics have something to do with it as well. Like I've mentioned before my sister eats and eats and looks like a rake, I walk past a fridge and add a stone before its even opened. I was always bigger even as a child, yet we all ate exactly the same, so something went wrong somewhere.
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Fat child taken into care Empty Re: Fat child taken into care

Post by HiJo Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:09 am

It should always be a last resort, taking a child from its family, so I think there must have been something very wrong here. There was a case a few months ago where the social workers had tried time after time to get the message across to the mother but she continued to feed her child junk food until the little girl was the size of a house. She was taken into care too.

In my opinion, if the child was grossly overweight and the parents were refusing to deal with it, social services did need to step in. It's child cruelty, letting that happen. But I notice they're saying that was only part of the reason.
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