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| Yes | 21% | 51 votes | Total: 246 votes | |
| No | 79% | 195 votes |
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Add to FavoritesWhen I was eight, I was sent to a summer camp along with all the others from our home for fatherless boys. It was a great experience, because it was so much different than our usual crowded, dirty city streets. Swimming in a big lake, hiking along wooded mountain trails, no classes and great food in the mess hall.
I remember at one morning roll call, as we lined up in front of our cabins, the names of some boys, including mine, were called out. As the other campers were marched away for regular fun activities, we were taken back to the mess hall. The camp nurse was there, and we were told we'd have to report every morning for extra vitamin-enriched chocolate milk rations because we were underweight. Since this was during the Great Depression, I don't ever remember any boys from the camp being labeled as overweight. But, because most of us had come from very poor homes, many were little more than walking skeletons.
As soon as the news got around the camp about our conditions, we had to endure taunts and nicknames. Some were called Skinny, Bones, Stick Ribs, No Ass and other others even more profane that labeled us among our peers. I was Chicken Neck. Although all we had to do was drink our extra concoction, I still remember the humiliation we suffered from all the other kids. I can imagine how overweight kids feel today when they are made to go to special "fat farm" camps.
Are such camps good for overweight kids? For combatting their condition, the camps can be a great benefit. If the schedules are created by qualified physicians and nutritionists, and the regimens are followed to improve both the physical and emotional needs of the kids, they're more than just appropriate. For the sake of health in the later lives of the kids, such camps are absolutely necessary. However, when a child is labeled fat and is isolated from his schoolmates, it can be a humiliating experience. A skinny kid can mask his appearance somewhat by wearing heavy clothes, but an obese kid knows his condition is always on display.
Jay Leno often has lines in his monolog that start with, "Our kids are so fat today...." The abundance of junk foods, lack of exercise and many hours in front of the TV and computer have all contributed to a generation of fat American kids. If parents and professionals are determined to help overweight kids fight their problems by enrolling them in such camps, it can only be beneficial for the kids now and in the future.
Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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No
If your child is under 10 years old and that child is overweight, mainly, one of two problems might be the cause for the overweight condition. Yes, that child could have a health problem or that child might have parents who are slowly killing their child with kindness by feeding that child too much of/or the wrong kinds of food. That sounds like a cruel thing to say but it is true. Boys want to be just like their Dad and girls want to be just like their Mom.
You see, I saw many families whose members were all overweight. Well, I guess that is too bad for those children, since they usually adopt the habits of their parents. Some might say that it is a form of child abuse. Then again, maybe their parents do not know any better or those parents cannot afford to buy all of the different kinds of food required for a well balanced diet. Your guess is as good as mine. So too, sending the child to a weight loss camp, in the long run, won't help that child one bit. The child will go home and again eat the foods that their parents provide. Skinny children usually do not like the food that their parents eat.
Then again, it is possible that the child might try to educate its parents, in regard to what kind of foods are healthy and non-fattening. In other words, if the child is to lose weight, that effort must be a group effort that truly requires the positive input from those concerned parents.
Clearly, it is the parents who need to be educated, in regard to which foods are healthy and also how much food is consumed during each day. Responsible parents would do no less for their children. So too, instead of a weight loss camp, it would wise to send their children to a summer camp. There are plenty of activities available for their enjoyment, besides eating. Peer pressure might also serves as a guide for the child to lose weight in order to fit in with the group and have a truly enjoyable experience with people its own age.
That is how children develop into responsible adults as they discover the wonders of the World and gain wisdom. Foods that contains a whole lot of saturated fats are not healthy for children or their parents. Children do not know any better and it is the true responsibility of each parent to feed their children healthy foods, rather than foods that they just like and could care less, in some cases, if they become as fat as a house. Being fat is not a true measure of ones well being or ones social position.
Learn more about this author, Joseph Malek.
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