by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: November 12, 2008   Last Updated: March 15, 2010

One of the problems with assessing who is to blame for childhood obesity is the issue of the age at which children actually become adults. It is feasible to blame parents for the obesity of a child who is only five, but can the same be said of a child' of sixteen? In theory, a child of sixteen has the potential to make decisions for him or herself, but in reality how often can a child exercise that choice?

After all, most children are still living with their parents at sixteen and eat the meals that their parents cook for them. If their parents are cooking highly calorific meals, then the child is unlikely to say anything. This may partly because they do not want to offend the cook, but even more than this is the fact that large, fatty, unhealthy meals are what they know. If they have never been taught about nutrition and exercise, then it is virtually impossible to stand up and say something when they know no better.

Most obese children end up as obese adults, and often struggle with their weight throughout their lives because of the difficulty of challenging their conditioned attitudes towards portion control, nutrition and exercise. Often the parents of obese children are obese themselves, and often have their own problems with understanding what a reasonable-sized portion is and what their calorific intake should be. It is no wonder, then, that the bad habits of one generation get passed on to the next.

The situation is so bad in some families that social services sometimes threaten to take children away from their parents if they do not try to help them to lose weight. This is an extreme measure, but illustrates how desperate local authorities are to do something about the obesity epidemic. Obesity has all kinds of related health issues. It can lead to heart disease, diabetes, restricted movement, and breathing problems, and consequently it is sometimes in the best interests of children for outside agencies to intervene. Clearly such agencies view it as the responsibility of parents to control their child's weight and to prevent an overweight child from turning into an obese one.

Perhaps there are occasions which warrant such action, but in most cases a child's obesity is often a result of parental ignorance of diet and nutrition rather than any premeditated desire to increase their child's weight to such an extent that it endangers their health. It is therefore important to help inform parents as well as children about weight management, rather than simply removing a child from his or her home.

Society's dual obsession with food and losing weight means that there is a lot of pressure on everybody to look a certain way and to be a certain weight, which can be damaging to an overweight person's self-esteem, particularly children. Overall, though, weight management is more important for health reasons than for pure vanity. Individuals need to take responsibility for their actions, and for parents this means taking responsibility for their children's weight.

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