That's the headline I expect to read sometime in the future. Certainly officials are trying to make it so, for children at least. A Cleveland, Ohio third grader has been taken from his mother for being overweight. Granted, he is severely overweight. No third grader should weigh 200 lbs. But that doesn't give a good excuse for ripping this child from his parents. These parents are not beating their child. They are not making him wear rags or going without. They are working with a doctor to loose weight.
This is what happens when government gets involved where they don't belong. This child isn't being abused. Is he in perfect health? No. But he's also in no physical or mental danger. There are so many children out there being abused and neglected that will not get help because social workers are busy removing children who don't need their help. This is not a problem social services should be involved with.
Some people are just predisposed to being overweight. I should know, I am one! And so is my daughter. Guess what, she's not thin either.
Obesity is a problem, but it's not one that we should point fingers at and say abuser or unfit parent. The damages of removing the child from his home is far worse than any potential health hazard from being overweight.
Just ask Anamarie Regino, a 3 yr old removed from her home for weighing 90 lbs. When are people going to realize that everyone comes in different shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. Making obesity illegal is wrong, plain and simple. It is NOT child abuse.
“Literally, it was two months of hell. It seemed like the longest two months of my life,” mother Adela Martinez said.
Her daughter, 3-year-old Anamarie Regino, weighing 90 pounds, was taken from her parents and placed into foster care a decade ago.
Anamarie didn’t improve at all in foster care, and she was returned to
her parents. The young girl was later diagnosed with a genetic
predisposition.
“They say it’s for the well-being of the child, but it did more damage
than any money or therapy could ever to do to fix it,” Martinez said.
Anamarie Regino, who is now a teenager, agreed.
“It’s not right, what [Dr. Ludwig] is doing, because to get better you
need to be with your family, instead of being surrounded by doctors,”
she said.
