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Overfeeding Our Kids = Child Abuse?

Recently the new had a segment about obese children and the responsibility parents have to ensure they maintain a healthy diet and level of fitness. The question? Should over-feeding your children be considered child abuse?

Apparently in the US and recently introduced in the UK there are laws that involve this aspect and it's treated as seriously as child abuse. Children can be removed from families that provide loving, tender home lives but do not take care of the nutritional aspect of their child's diet.

Personally, I think putting the responsibility of a child's diet firmly on their parents' shoulders is exactly what communities need. Educating parents to the dangers of childhood obesity and what healthy weight range should be for children is an important area that currently doesn't receive enough attention. We live in a world where the majority of humans in western cultures are overweight and our children develop habits based on the patterning they get now which ultimately leads them to exacerbating the problem.

Basically, children of obese parents will generally grow up obese. They'll learn dieting habits that are dangerous to their health. They simply don't know any better. Of course the odds are that today's parents are already a result of their own childhood conditioning. With the advent of technology and mankind's desire to have instant pleasures it leads to a lazy culture that survives on junk food. Obviously not the ideal for raising healthy well-balanced children.

I think advertising holds some responsibility also. Temptations are pumped into our children as NEEDS via marketed advertising, it's up to parents to draw the line on what they let their kids have but it would be an easier job to do if the consumer driven companies would lay off targeting our kids.

Parents who cannot provide a healthy diet for their children are being abusive. No argument. The outcome is my deciding factor. The sheer horror of the health situation an obese child presents is more serious then abuse in other ways. Obesity is a life and death situation, poor diet leads to all manner of illnesses and disease. We know this and still we pump ourselves and our children with what my daughter wrinkles her nose and calls, "fats and sugars".

The answer isn't really to take children away from their loving homes however. The real answer is in educating parents to the dangers short and long term for themselves but more importantly their children. Show them

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