To Feed Or Not To Feed

We all seem to be getting fatter, but the problem for children who are obese is an even greater. They depend on responsible parents to feed them properly and to monitor their physical condition.. Well, to best explain that idea, take the case of the eight year old boy who lives in Cleveland, Ohio and apparently can't stop moving his knife and fork to his mouth. At age eight he now already weighs about 95 kilos and, as a result, has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight. This is the first case in the U.S. in which state officials put a child in foster care strictly for a weight-related issues.

Doctors have stated to local authorities that the big boy is so obese that he is already at risk for such diseases as diabetes and hypertension. Of course the irresponsible mom has engaged a lawyer to have her son placed back into her negligent care. The lawyer for the mother says that the county overreached when they removed her son from her custody. The lawyer also claims that the medical problems he is at risk for do not yet pose an imminent danger.

So is this a case of the government over-reaching it's authority and denying a parent the right to have custody of her own child. Or is this a case where intervention may be necessary in saving the life of the child. Surely, if the parent wasn't feeding him at all and putting his health at risk that way, she would be charged with neglect. So the same should hold true if she is overfeeding him?

One thing is sure, that single mom is a parent putting her child at risk because she apparently is clue less about the basic method for parenting her child. And it is good to see that the social service department in Ohio is acting when it sees cases in which children are not being parented properly. More times than not, a government agency that is set up to protect the lives and safety of kids is guilty of not over action, but rather, not acting often enough to protect kids from neglectful parents.

So what is the answer to this case? Did the government do the right thing in an attempt to protect that child, or did it interfere in the right of a parent to have custody of her child. Too, might an alternative to removing the child from her care be that the parent retain custody with the stipulation that she attend regular parenting classes and visitations from child welfare personnel to ensure the child is not becoming even fatter?