Doctor Recommends Obese Children Be Taken From Their Parents

As heard on your information update this morning with Jim Rondenelli,  a leading doctor has proposed putting severely obese children in temporary foster homes.

Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children’s Hospital Boston, is advocating the removal of some extremely overweight kids from their home as a last option. In the opinion piece, Ludwig wrote about a 12-year old girl who weighed 400 pounds, and was placed in a foster home because she had developed diabetes, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.

After a year in foster care, and three square meals a day, the girl lost 130 pounds and her health greatly improved.

His opinion piece appears in the  “Journal of the American Medical Association.”He says in severe situations, parents should lose custody of their obese children.

This type of state intervention is rare, at this point. But since health care officials are already required to report when children are severely underweight, it probably won’t require any legal changes to make the flagging of super obese children standard procedure, too.

Ludwig states the parents’ ongoing failure to address a child’s obesity problem may justify state intervention and foster care. However, he makes it clear that taking a child from home is not the answer to all settings involving extreme weight problems.

What do you think? If a child’s obesity poses a severe threat to their health does the state have the right to take that child from their parents? Please leave a comment.