Watch Out Parents: The State May Want to Take Away Your Obese Kids
- Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:29pm by
Tiffany Gabbay
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CHICAGO (AP/ The Blaze) — Should parents of extremely obese children lose custody for not controlling their kids’ weight?
A provocative commentary in one of the nation’s most distinguished medical journals argues yes, and its authors are joining a quiet chorus of advocates who say the government should be allowed to intervene in extreme cases.
It has happened a few times in the U.S., and the opinion piece in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association says putting children temporarily in foster care is in some cases more ethical than obesity surgery.
Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children’s Hospital Boston, said the point isn’t to blame parents, but rather to act in children‘s best interest and get them help that for whatever reason their parents can’t provide.
State intervention “ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible. That may require instruction on parenting,” said Ludwig, who wrote the article with Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and a researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
“Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention, it may sometimes be necessary to protect a child,” Murtagh said.
But University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan said he worries that the debate risks putting too much blame on parents. Obese children are victims of advertising, marketing, peer pressure and bullying – things a parent can’t control, he said.
“If you‘re going to change a child’s weight, you’re going to have to change all of them,” Caplan said.
Roughly 2 million U.S. children are extremely obese. Most are not in imminent danger, Ludwig said. But some have obesity-related conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties and liver problems that could kill them by age 30. It is these kids for whom state intervention, including education, parent training, and temporary protective custody in the most extreme cases, should be considered, Ludwig said.
While some doctors promote weight-loss surgery for severely obese teens, Ludwig said it hasn’t been used for very long in adolescents and can have serious, sometimes life-threatening complications.
“We don’t know the long-term safety and effectiveness of these procedures done at an early age,” he said.
Ludwig said he starting thinking about the issue after a 90-pound 3-year-old girl came to his obesity clinic several years ago. Her parents had physical disabilities, little money and difficulty controlling her weight. Last year, at age 12, she weighed 400 pounds and had developed diabetes, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.
“Out of medical concern, the state placed this girl in foster care, where she simply received three balanced meals a day and a snack or two and moderate physical activity,” he said. After a year, she lost 130 pounds. Though she is still obese, her diabetes and apnea disappeared; she remains in foster care, he said.
In a commentary in the medical journal BMJ last year, London pediatrician Dr. Russell Viner and colleagues said obesity was a factor in several child protection cases in Britain. They argued that child protection services should be considered if parents are neglectful or actively reject efforts to control an extremely obese child’s weight.
A 2009 opinion article in Pediatrics made similar arguments. Its authors said temporary removal from the home would be warranted “when all reasonable alternative options have been exhausted.”
That piece discussed a 440-pound 16-year-old girl who developed breathing problems from excess weight and nearly died at a University of Wisconsin hospital. Doctors discussed whether to report her family for neglect. But they didn’t need to, because her medical crisis “was a wake-up call” for her family, and the girl ended up losing about 100 pounds, said co-author Dr. Norman Fost, a medical ethicist at the university’s Madison campus.
State intervention in obesity “doesn’t necessarily involve new legal requirements,” Ludwig said. Health care providers are required to report children who are at immediate risk, and that can be for a variety of reasons, including neglect, abuse and what doctors call “failure to thrive.” That’s when children are severely underweight.
Jerri Gray, a Greenville, S.C., single mother who lost custody of her 555-pound 14-year-old son two years ago, said authorities don‘t understand the challenges families may face in trying to control their kids’ weight.
“I was always working two jobs so we wouldn’t end up living in ghettos,” Gray said. She said she often didn’t have time to cook, so she would buy her son fast food. She said she asked doctors for help for her son’s big appetite but was accused of neglect.
Her sister has custody of the boy, now 16. The sister has the money to help him with a special diet and exercise, and the boy has lost more than 200 pounds, Gray said.
“Even though good has come out of this as far as him losing weight, he told me just last week, `Mommy, I want to be back with you so bad.‘ They’ve done damage by pulling us apart,” Gray said.
Stormy Bradley, an Atlanta mother whose overweight 14-year-old daughter is participating in a Georgia advocacy group’s “Stop Childhood Obesity” campaign, said she sympathizes with families facing legal action because of their kids’ weight.
Healthier food often costs more, and trying to monitor kids’ weight can be difficult, especially when they reach their teens and shun parental control, Bradley said. But taking youngsters away from their parents “definitely seems too extreme,” she said.
Dr. Lainie Ross, a medical ethicist at the University of Chicago, said: “There’s a stigma with state intervention. We just have to do it with caution and humility and make sure we really can say that our interventions are going to do more good than harm.”
AP provides the video:
The State’s battle for control over everything — right down to what our kids weigh — rages on. Earlier today The Blaze even reported that the British government endorses a work-out regimen for infants in order to stave off childhood obesity.
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Comments (278)
likwidlizard
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:34amObamacare plans to KILL OFF the old, disabled, sick, and now the obese. First, they’ll come and snag your kids, then they‘ll limit what treatment they get and after so long or so many treatments they’ll let you DIE. This is stated in the Obamacare “BIBLE plan”. They didn’t want anyone to read these regulations, that’s why the “BIBLE’ was 13 inches thick and 14,000 pages long. My own doctor has told me these things will happen when Obamacare kicks in. This dictator plans to overtake the nation.
Report Post »mikem1969
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:00amCome and try to take my kids, there will be several less dss agents. No more freaking nanny state.
Report Post »the hawk
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 2:08amThough some parents would’nt mind !
Report Post »It would be over my dead body! And then my brothers would come for revenge !
spikebu
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 5:47amDoes anybody consider genetics? I weighed 103 when I left HS (I’m 5ft 4″). At 28 I had my first child. I started at 103lbs. I weighed 153 at his birth. 2 weeks later I weighed 99lbs. I have never been on a diet. Women I’ve worked with would bring me stuff to up my weight. Didn’t work. Had 2 more kids. Gained 20-25lbs with them. My youngest just turned 16. I have gained an entire pound since HS. I am accused of being anorexic AND bulimic by my relatives. How do you prove a negative? I quit trying. I am now approaching my 49th birthday. When anybody tells me I need to gain wt (I still weigh 104), I ask them what’s so wonderful about being fat. I used to be able to out eat the most rigorous weight lifters, I just don’t have anything to prove anymore. Eat til I’m comfortable or uncomfortable. My weight doesn’t change. How do you regulate that?
Report Post »spikebu
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 5:55amI’m sorry. Did you say 14,000? 7 times longer than the Obamacare package? What are you talking about?
Report Post »chazman
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 6:32amThe education is out there, but if mom and dad don’t learn, and the kids don’t learn, well, this is America. Be all you can be or DON’T be all you can be! It’s yer freedom of choice! If you die because yer fat then so be it!! America cannot and will not hold yer hand as yer fat a$$ sinks to the bottom of the lake! Which means America WILL NOT INTERVENE IN YER FAT PROBLEM! Get it together!
Report Post »GRAMPA-D-NH
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 7:30amAmericans need rise up and take Obummer and this obese government away in 2012.
Report Post »watchmany2k
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 7:32amI can hear the congressional hearing now.
Senator Johnson: So you want to take the fatty, fat fatties into your foster facillities.
DR Experimental surgeon: yes, we need to operate on them asap, and follow up with liberal reeducation
Senator Johnson: I understand your facility is on the edge of a lake is that correct
DR. Exp Surgeon: yes sir a nice sandy beach too
Senator Johnson: well I am concerned that a high concentration of these fat children will cause
the facility to capsize and fall into the lake, but I’m no expert…
(audible laughter-people falling out of chairs holding their sides)
MORONS -ALL of them…
stay out of our lives, and stop putting high fructose Corn syrup in ALL our foods !
The CORN subsidy is the single change in our food system, the concentration of that sugar is
the equivalent of crack in food, especially cheap processed foods.
FDA – Eff Dem Americans …
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:08amPretty hypocritical IMHO. You really need to stand back to see how obese our own government is.
Slim up Uncle Sam, or lose custody!
Report Post »jhaydeng
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:11amDid anyone know that eating fast food may make you gain weight?
Report Post »Rashomon
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:19amfunny they didn’t come and take away the kids smoking pot.
Report Post »old white guy
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:21amheh, i can see it now legions of skinny bureaucrats chaining kids to posts to stop them from eating and throwing them salad and water three times a day.
Report Post »old white guy
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:22amludwig is a very dangerous man.
Report Post »PelositheGreat
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:26amYou mentioned genetics. How will life be when babies are tested in the womb for genetics and dont have the ‘right stuff’? Take three parts Solyent Green, five parts 1984, and swizzle in some minority report and you have the new America!
Ya’ll are too edgy, chill out.
Report Post »love the kids
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:26amThis is progressiveism. I don’t see how the Govt. regulating what you eat, and stepping up for obese kids, is really any different. Do you realize that the highest majority of obese kids are from democratic, low income families. If they don’t have much money, how do they overeat?
Report Post »Dahart
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:28amThese Do Gooders need to be careful what they ask for………before you know it we will signing our children over to the state at birth!
Report Post »Cobra Blue
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:49amOK Michelle…your plump little kidos first. Just try and come to my house and touch my wife or my kids and see what you get in return.
Report Post »Buck Bagaw
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:56amIf fast food makes one fat then what effect would slow food have? I don’t think the escargot and turtle soup diet will ever catch on.
Report Post »tower7femacamp
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 9:55amWhat else do you Blazers expect ?
http://www.khou.com/news/Storage-Shed-CPS-Fight-125041524.html
Nancy Schaefer was killed for standing up to CPS and stopping the North American Union
Report Post »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TcDTJlPWbE&feature=related
tower7femacamp
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 9:55amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AV0WbT_Nho&feature=related
Report Post »tower7femacamp
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 9:57amIt is far worse than the Blaze will admit
Report Post »I wish the Blaze would do a story on
my Hero Nancy Schaefer
JRook
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 10:06amInteresting pic of the couch kid sitting there in front of the boob tube stuffing his face. And your telling me parents have no control over that behavior. But I’m still against the state taking kids away short of direct physical abuse.
Report Post »Professional Infidel
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:23pmlooks like she has made a lot of bad choices!!
Report Post »Oak
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:01pmCheck out http://www.proxyparenting.com “We‘re from the government and we’re here to help.” :)
Report Post »AZfreeman
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:27pmWhat in the hell is our Gooberment doing? Do they really believe we want a NANNY state!!! Where in the Constitution do they find this stuff?
Instead of starting a program like this which will cost taxpayers millions $$$$…., the same results could be achieved by cutting off food stamps or welfare checks or any other TAXPAYER funded aid program to families with obese members. Now there’s some real incentive to eat right and keep yourself fit while sucking the Gooberment tit. …rf
Report Post »NextGeneration
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 2:35pmThis is another case of more government control. It is the parents’ responsibility to make sure that their children are healthy. The government is again taking another responsibility from the parents. Another nanny state rule creeping in.
Report Post »Evileye
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 4:04pmAuschwitz,Dachau,Buchenwald,Treblinka
Report Post »A political retraining Camp come to you soon.
We intend to return the person reduced (to ashes)
Joshua7
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 4:29pmI still say the obesity problem has a lot to do with the poverty problem. The best remedy is more jobs not less rights you stupid legislative control freaks!
Report Post »Saved777
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:33amYou know…. This might not be a bad idea. Many obese kids live depressed lives, by the time they really care “ Puberty” it’s too late and they miss out on all experiences of prom, sports, and other social clubs, they become outcast. While I am aware that this is viewed as Government control over our lives, this is one area where I believe obese children will thank them for taking the control out of the parents hands.
Report Post »freedomofspeech
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:50amsounds like you have not lived in a foster home? with children/family services already full to the max, I doubt our government will be able to “fix” the obesity issue in this country. A parents hands are tied when it comes to discipline, done by our government and I say medical elite. I have seen a turn to enable children with poor self control/motivation by meds for hyperactivity, meds and dx for OCD, ADD, you name it. Our society drug kids for being active, calls parents abusers who spank as a form of discipline, now they wants to take the kids away if they sit around watch t.v. and get fat. No the government does not make thing better, the government makes things much worse. Foster homes is the worst thing one can do for thier children.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:52ami‘m sure it wasn’t a bad idea to the germans when hitler suggested that they just kill the defective babies because they cost too much to take care of.
Report Post »conservativewoman
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:38amAnd when they take kids for being obese, what next? The start of something like this can be very dangerous. Many evils have been disguised as a good deed!
Report Post »joe3
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 2:13amthis is pure evil, if this goes down revolt and start a new republic. what would your grandfather think about this?
Report Post »joe3
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 2:50amno mater what comrade obama spews, the government does not make the sun shine, the grass grow, kids fat, or kids loose weight. but the government does at every chance destroy the family, take away your rights that are not theirs to take, and gets too big for its britches. im all for a second american revolution, too much is going down with this left wing strong man.
Report Post »Favored93
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 3:22amThe foster care system is HORRID!! However there are obviously cases were kids should be removed from a home being fat is NOT one of them. I get it some kids are to fat and it MAY border on abuse but lets follow this line of logic for a moment. Is the child being beaten or sexually abused? Are they being verbally abused? Are they being neglected?
Report Post »Can you think of any other area in our lives were govt. can literally come in and control your every move?
I have a friend who was in the navy lived in CA and he and his wife spanked there kids. Believe what you want there is a difference between spanking and abuse. So the state of CA some how found out and took the kids away did an investigation and the navy did as well but found them both clean. To make a long story short the state made them get a divorce if the mom wanted to keep her kids the state later found they were clean and closed the case they got re-married and moved to Utah!
The CPS may be needed because there are wicked people out there I will give you that, but they wield far to much power! Our govt. is fast becoming what our founders bled and died to free us from. If our kids are to skinny we are neglecting them to fat abusing them and wham’o your life is turned upside down with a knock on the door and here is your govt. to shatter your family.
Our personal legacy is found in our children 99% of us who have them do everything we know to give them the best start we can but if Govt. does not like it they take them.
RCScrolls
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 3:30amYeap your drinking Omamaaide your sold out a sociaist at heart heard it all before but when they target you for what you dont hink they will ever do, just remeberthat you promoted BigGovernment in your life.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 4:27amHow about they take them if they are too thin??? Have Red hair??? People are “different” what is “normal” for some may not be for others. I have known people who can eat and eat and never put on a pound .. what if the state deems them too thin??? I thought we had a shortage of foster homes for REALLY abused kids … they keep giving parents the kids back who burn them or hit them .. now you want to take the ones who are eating???
Enough with the socialist UTOPIA .. it only exists in the small minds of radicals.
TEA!
Report Post »spikebu
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 6:12amSo, when our grandchildren ask, “How did our Republic fall?”, we can just point to this and tell them it was blindness.
Report Post »spikebu
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 6:15amGod Bless you, Cat B!
Report Post »PatA
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:02amI 100% agree Freedom. Do not let the Government scare you, as a parent, on how to discipine your child and never let a pin-head child psychologist or teacher tell you to drug your child. All children need love, discipline and attention from their parents and the rest pretty much falls into place. Government and child psychologist have definitely made a mess of Americas children.
Report Post »kwatch
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 8:13amso you are going to be one of the peoples on the panel who gets to decide who gets to keep their child or not? do you also want to be on the panel who gets to live and die. I am sorry that you are arrogant enough to believe that this is a control thing- you see it as having a heart- but it is true arrogance thinking you know or govt knows what is best.
Report Post »Ampleforth
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:32amWhat about the kids who are left to roam the streets? Is the government going to sieze them, too? Isn’t that a form of neglect?
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:53amhe does use the term “public ‘at large’” … what does ‘at large’ mean to you?
Report Post »tower7femacamp
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 10:04amthat depends on how much money they are worth
http://www.beatcpsnow.com/gpage.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztEqMounuRU
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:25amweather the government overreaches to take them away from their fat ass enabling parents, or they stay on their fat course their whole life in freedom, the tax payer pays for it… Thanks a lot fat F#@ks! The only people who can be irresponsible with food are rich people with good health coverage… Ironically it’s the poor who somehow are the fatest
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:01ami’ve seen way more skinny crack heads and bums than fat ones. .
Report Post »BetsyRoss1513
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 7:16amPoor people are ‘somehow’ the fattest because if you have a dollar to spend, are you going to buy ONE 4oz beef patty (feeds ONE), or three boxes of macaroni and cheese (feeds 5-6)? Poor people buy what they can afford, and cheap fattening foods are it.
Report Post »EyeofthePatriot
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 10:33amCesium
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:25am
weather the government overreaches to take them away from their fat ass enabling parents, or they stay on their fat course their whole life in freedom, the tax payer pays for it… Thanks a lot fat F#@ks! The only people who can be irresponsible with food are rich people with good health coverage… Ironically it’s the poor who somehow are the fatest
——————————————————————
@CESIUM
Wow, your entire post is just DRIPPING with Liberal talking points now isn’t it? Are you an infected Liberal too? Liberalism is a disease you know… but I highly DOUBT your insurer will cover treatment for its cure.
TRUTH is the cure, and it is 100% free. Maybe you should try thinking for yourself. Why are you blaming the “fat F#@ks” (to quote your oh-so-kind verbiage) for taking Government handouts instead of the damn Government that enables them, the poor “fat F#@ks”. I like your logic… it implies deep thinking doesn’t it? Lets blame your nose for your head cold…
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:22amYes, of course, BIG GOVERNMENT is the solution to all of our problems. They know best don’t you know. After all, look at how well they‘ve done everything else they’ve touched. Wall Street, the banks, GM and Chrysler, how about the borders and gun running to Mexico? Oh, these “breathless” intellectuals from Harvard, certainly, they have the answers. Wait a minute, isn’t Obama from Harvard too? Another fine mess I would say. This time though, given the subject matter, one would have to call it a BIG FAT FINE MESS!
Report Post »Robert-CA
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:22amThis is ridiculous .
Report Post »By the way did the State protected Caylee Anthony from her killer mom or did the State gave Caylee justice ?
& who’s gonna be next on the list ? kids with big bone mass or kids who turn on the lights in their bedrooms @ night ?
Remember when they said to the kids each time you turn on the lights in your bedroom a polar bear dies .
mossbrain
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:21amLook at all the athletic kids destroying their bodies in extreme sports. I bet if an honest analysis of health was done the fat kids wouldn’t be that far behind the fit kids, taking into account sports injuries. This is just another ploy by the medical establishment to make more money for themselves.
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 4:51amI Think you should change your name to no brain…That was a stupid comment.
Report Post »ENTITLEMENTSBLOW
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 11:59amHaha, yes, very stupid. Has to be a joke.
Report Post »BLUJKTS
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:19amahh i remember when we used to go out white whalin’…the good ol days. fat girlz need love too
Report Post »Bruce_Almty
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:17amWill McDonalds, Burger King and Dairy Queen be running these Fat Farms For Kids? Or will they be sent to Auschwitz II and put on the Jewish diet? I assume we taxpayers will be footing the food and board bill. Are video games included?
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:21amI say let em die… natural selection… State intervention otherwise would save these fat lard tubs from their moron parents and that is a legitimate government intervention if you believe the american government serves to protect people form harm. The same would be done if parents were supporting their kids drug habits… food is no different.. but hey I’m a libertarian and evolutionist… I say let the stupid dig their own holes.. either way the tax payer foots the bill… either in foster care or when they die with no insurance at the age of 50
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:38amjust because you believe that way doesn’t mean you have to LET people die.. you can believe that way AND help people… what kind of walls are you building?
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:47amhow about, if you’re too extreme then we tax you more. an extreme tax.
Report Post »frustratedwithgovt
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:15amAnother case of Gov’t over reach. We need to get government out of our lives, not deeper into it.
Report Post »Bruce_Almty
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:22am“State intervention will cover the whole family”……….I’m glad the state can support the whole family; will that be like welfare that last indefinitely or workers’ comp that only last 99 weeks?
Report Post »Churk
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:14amI’m so sick of that day old excuse that eating healthy is expensive. Bull crap. It’s no more expensive spending $20.00 at McDonalds a week than it is to make a salad at home. Eat around the seasons when it comes to eating healthy. Right now you can get green peppers, lettuce, mushrooms, apples, onions, green onions, tomatoes and all sorts of fresh and healthy foods for minimal prices! If you really want to be healthy, you’ll find an inexpensive way to do it.
Report Post »As for kids being taken away, that just seems so silly. There‘s so many kids fighting for their lives that need help and don’t get it. I just don‘t understand what’s so hard about getting outside and going for a walk or playing some baseball. The Government shouldn’t be responsible because YOU are lazy.
SGT Rock
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:56amDo you have kids or are you single? I have kids and buy lots of fruits and veggies. Im not sure what planet you are on when you say it is not expensive. I just spent 5.00 a pound for fresh cherries at the farmers market, 2.89 for one pound of nectarines and 3.00 a pound for some really sour grapes. One pepper is 1.50 and thats the green ones. My lettace runs around 2.00 a head . Most of this is supermarket prices since I found out that the farmers markets are ripping ya off. 6.00 for 12 eggs is just ridiculous! 4.00 for a pound of apples is insane! I have to buy at least 2-3 times a week to keep it fresh and in the house. It is very expensive! I buy no pre- made meals and cook from scratch. I am not condoning fat kids,but it seems like sometimes people who do not have families have no clue. Life changes when you have kids. Things get very tight. Yes some individuals just dont care what their kids eat, but do some research before you say it is cheap. It is not!
Report Post »Jade_Peverell
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:16amMy friend and I do the ‘Grow your own garden’ diet. We eat only what we grow and weeding the garden every day is all the exercise we need!
Report Post »bikermama
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:26amAMEN Sgt. Rock. I have 5 kids and healthy is more expensive. I try to find ways to cook that are healthier, but I can’t always afford the healthiest foods. Like I can’t believe it not butter is $6.50 a tub, compared to the Blue Bonnet which is only $2.78 a tub. I wish I could buy all the best, but I can’t. We don’t eat out hardly ever, it is cheaper to cook at home. I don’t buy a lot of sugar drinks, mostly sugar free kool aid, its cheap. My kids play outside a lot (except those 100 deg. days). We do what we can. And still I have one of my children who struggles with weight, the govt. can kiss my a** and stay out of my life. I do the best I can by my children and feed them the best I can on the budget I have to work with. I could do better if gas wasn‘t so high and groceries weren’t constantly going up.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:36am@ Sgt Rock, unless you live on base or in a rental, you should invest in a few fruit trees, a canner, and a couple of raised garden beds made out of cheap lumber and a few 10d nails. You can start planting lettuce in the early spring (I prefer ceasar lettuce) and plant about 5-10 seeds a week until the beds are fully planted (~ 1 month to harvest). By spacing out the time you plant the seed, you can harvest the heads over a long period, that’s important because if you let lettuce grow too big it becomes bitter and unappetizing. Anyway, one packet of seed that costs about a buck should be all the seed you need for a summer of salads and you can expect with caesar lettuce to feed 1 adult per head or 2 children per head. So plant according to how much you will need per meal and your family’s salad tolerance levels. Squash is also a good plant to start out with. Just get some bush type squash, whatever you like, and make sure you space them out. I have 8 squash plants of different varieties and they have produced more than me and my extended family can eat. Of course, I planted about 12, so die off is a problem, but I have one with a trunk about the size of my forearm that just keeps growing and producing at least 2 squash a week if not more.
My point is that if you take a little initiative in your own food prep, you can save a ton of money. If you do decide to grow, do yourself a favor and think out a proper water system, maybe drip system. Watering daily in 105 weather su
Report Post »BetsyRoss1513
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 7:22amI’m in agreement wi/ StRock. How much of that fresh fruit and veggies go bad if you don’t use them up in a few days? LOTS OF IT. Been there, done that.
Report Post »And our lives are not just fresh fruits and vegetables. Have you seen the price of meat these days?
One dollar can buy you a 4oz 95% lean beef patty, and it will feed ONE. A dollar can also buy 3 boxes of macaroni and cheese and will feed 4-6. When you’re on a budget, this kind of comparison matters a great deal. Besides, I fed two kids on mac and cheese for 20 years, and neither of them are any worse for wear.
BetsyRoss1513
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 7:25amSgt B, apartment dwellers or poor families living in the city don’t have that option. You are talking about the kind of dwellings that are found in SUBURBS and therefore don’t NEED to grow gardens as they can easily afford their grocery bills.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:04pmIn the long run, healthy is cheaper, because you (or somebody) will save on medical costs down the road. Perhaps this consideration, as well as “the interest of the child,” gives the government an interest in this matter?
Report Post »shadow19882
Posted on July 14, 2011 at 6:48pmNot all thin kids are healthy either. Is that next? Take all the kids away from their parents if they don’t weight what the government thinks they should. Government needs to stay out of our lives and start doing the jobs they are getting paid to do,
Report Post »spreadcommonsensenot pc
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:13amsend all progressives to fema camp
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:12amOff to the “fat farm” today and off to the lib indoctrination camp tomorrow.
Report Post »The government isn’t the answer.
ModerationIsBest
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:10amGive the Government a lick of your ice cream and eventually they’ll be going after the cone.
Report Post »ConstitutionFreedomLover
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:03amI have a question. How is this dr. ludwig involved with the government?
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:50amexactly… “trust me, i’m a doctor” – dr. seuss
Report Post »The Infidel
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:03amIn a truly egalitarian society, the government would recognize that the obesity hurts self-esteem but that personal fitness requires too much personal responsibility. The only fair solution is to force feed the non-obese so that all are equally obese. I would suggest fat cakes and 1700 calorie burger, fries and shake meals.
Report Post »BetsyRoss1513
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 7:27amWe already have that. It’s called McDonalds.
Report Post »Countrygirl1362
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 1:20pmYou mean follow the example Michelle Obama sets?
Report Post »NeoKong
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:59pmHow many of these kids are growing up on welfare and food stamps….?
Report Post »IowaWoman
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 6:40amThe majority
Report Post »TIME4CHOOSING
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:56pmHere are some great videos to share with those on the fence!
http://www.youtube.com/user/icesaint2011
Report Post »Slayer
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:54pmWho defines the definition of fat? How many times will that definition be changed so that the government can grab more and more kids? Why is this an issue at all? Since when were fat people a danger to society while sexual predators receive ‘get out of jail cards’ over and over again? This is a result of ME-Chelle Obama’s meddling.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:04amDefines the definition is redundant.
Report Post »Berbel73
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:37am“Who defines the definition of fat?”. Answer – HHS, Health and Human Services. “Since when were fat people a danger to society?” Answer – Since Obamacare passed. The federal government is going to start dictating to everyone who is on the government health care plan what they can eat and how much they exercise. Otherwise you will be required to a greater amount to have your “free” health care. You watch, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Remember you got to pass the bill to see what’s in it!
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:45amwho defines it though? and what is ‘extreme’?
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:49pmSend the kids to boot camp.
Report Post »9111315
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:09amIf you sent them to boot camp, they would drop dead in the first week. Yes, Boot Camp would kill them.
Maybe you need to create some type of slipper camp to get them ready!
Report Post »avgconservative
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:44pmIt never ceases to amaze me how their superior attitudes suck so hard.
Report Post »TIME4CHOOSING
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:52pmThis is why the left sucks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wusgcG4rfo&feature=player_profilepage
Report Post »mom4times
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:43pmto hell with government intervention…..just send them to my farm….need help with the hay…..that should shed them some poundage……they need to get off the stupid couch
Report Post »rienheart
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:42pmThey finally found a use for the FEMA camps, they will turn them into Fat Camps.
Report Post »ConstitutionFreedomLover
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:42pmTake their stinkin’ butts off welfare. Enough is enough. All they do is by junk food and become lazy…with their hands out for the government money. Put their sorry butts to work. It is called life…live with it. Wusses.
Report Post »AmericanStrega
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:56pmYep, if “they” would allow the children to work on farms picking beans, etc… and make a few bucks during summer break, the lard a$$es wouldn’t be lard A$$es. BUT, we can’t let that happen. MY LORD, WHERE WOULD THE ILLEGALS WORK? (I’m not saying that you employ illegals. Just saying that picking corn, beans, etc. by the children and/or those AMERICANS who need jobs, should be hired to do the jobs. Hey! Maybe there should be an executive order that states “People on welfare have to pick crops, or work at jobs if they want a handout, if they want that gub’ment check.”) Geez, guess I’m dreaming. Good luck with the harvest.
Report Post »Impenitent
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:39pmtake away the obese kids, no discrimination there …
who will they come to take next?
Report Post »ConstitutionFreedomLover
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:45pmImpenitent…who will they come to take next? No one
Report Post »Once the state controls the children, they control the family. Parents will do anything the state wants in order to keep their children safe.
Lana40
Posted on July 12, 2011 at 11:55pmWasn‘t it Hitler that wanted the ’perfect’ person. It seems to be going in the same direction.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 12:48amtaco bell is fat kids!!
Report Post »Parnell3rd
Posted on July 13, 2011 at 2:10amI think your right lana40.
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