Child Obesity = Child Abuse?

As I may have mentioned previously, I work in children's retail. A few days ago we had a customer trying to buy uniforms for her fifteen-year-old daughter. Unfortunately, we could only special order the clothes because the girl wore a size 5XL (that's XXXXX-Large) and we only carried up to 3XL. I've looked around and it seems children are much . . . larger than children were even ten years ago. Childhood obesity is a (excuse the pun) growing problem. Do you blame the parents? Do you think that childhood obesity is a form of child abuse?

If you really think about it then yes, it is a form of child abuse. Just because it doesn't hurt when they are young doesnt mean it won't in the future.

They may be happy now if you shove that lolly pop in their mouths to shut them up. But when they get older, heart disease and all the other problems that come with being obese as well as the mental state, I don't know a obese teenager who hasn't been at least once teased. So, if you bring it back to whom started this 'abuse' of their body, it was the parents, for either making them that way by not encouraging a healthy diet or not doing anything about it when it got out of hand

Part of the problem is that children don' eat healthy enough nor exercise often... and parents don' force 'em too. Kids these days don' go out and play as much anymore and parents don' do enough ta encourage that type of behavior. I wouldn' know 'bout child abuse, though, maybe child neglect; that's what it would seem more like ta me.:cool3:

I agree with J.M. Most kids are all wrapped up with Technology and videogames computers, etc. that they do not exercise or eat properly. I supose that Abuse can be one possibility because in some scenarios I've seen that abused or sometimes "sad" people have a habit of eating more. Or perhaps strees as going along with abuse such as poor grades, trying to manage 3 things at once, etc.

well to me yea it is cuase it ids the parrents faults for not keeping better care of there children.

They r responsible for them and if they let that happen then yes its there fault.

But that is just me.

Well that's a hard one. I'm half and half on that. It's not all the parents fault. With all the gaming systems and all the things that you can do on the comp now almost all the childern are sitting still most of their lives. But it's just not that, the schools now are making it harder for kids to do things like sports to keep in shape. They either have to pay to play which in most cases they don't have the money or they are taking them out completely. So what should stimulate the kids now? I use to play sports all year long and that's how I use to stay on shape. Now not saying that the parents aren't responsiable but it isn't just their fault.

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Originally Posted by fireandice

Well that's a hard one. I'm half and half on that. It's not all the parents fault. With all the gaming systems and all the things that you can do on the comp now almost all the childern are sitting still most of their lives. But it's just not that, the schools now are making it harder for kids to do things like sports to keep in shape. They either have to pay to play which in most cases they don't have the money or they are taking them out completely. So what should stimulate the kids now? I use to play sports all year long and that's how I use to stay on shape. Now not saying that the parents aren't responsiable but it isn't just their fault.

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I hear ya on the sports part, schools shouldn' b takin' those programs out like that. If they're havin' such a hard time keepin' them in; then they should come up somethin' like a raffle, raise the local tax, or somethin'. Anythin' ta keep them in the schools and the kids healthy. I think that there's plenty of blame ta go around when it concerns this issue.:cool3:

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Originally Posted by fireandice

Well that's a hard one. I'm half and half on that. It's not all the parents fault. With all the gaming systems and all the things that you can do on the comp now almost all the childern are sitting still most of their lives. But it's just not that, the schools now are making it harder for kids to do things like sports to keep in shape. They either have to pay to play which in most cases they don't have the money or they are taking them out completely. So what should stimulate the kids now? I use to play sports all year long and that's how I use to stay on shape. Now not saying that the parents aren't responsiable but it isn't just their fault.

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I have to disagree with the school thing. Sure it's getting more expensive to play sports at school and it could be one reason why kids are getting bigger.

But schools aren't national 'get fit camps'. What wrong with encouraging a kid to go outside, go for a walk, run around, play in the park? all things that can be done out of school and little or no expense. heck, even walking to school everyday (provided you live close enough :P) can help.

The only people to blame in these situation are the parents or even the children depending of course on the age of the child. Schools are their to educate people after all. Parents buy the foods, the games to make them sit on their butt all day, feed them all the junk food, even the child makes the choice to eat it.

And even if there all these computer games out there, they still have a choice and so does there parents. I grew up with console games all around me, and if I was ever on it for to long, my parents would kick me off and tell me to play outside (which was rare, becaused I often loved playing outside).