How This Mom Would Help an Obese Child Lose Weight and Be Healthy In Cleveland Heights, Ohio, an 8-year-old child was taken from his mother's home and placed in foster care. Why? He weighs over 200 pounds. Mom is being charged with medical neglect, for not making him diet. Despite having access to more community support networks than his mother, the foster family isn't finding it so easy to get his weight down either.Obesity isn't a simple matter, as they are finding. It's not just nutrition and exercise that determine a child's weight. Some kids can live on junk food and never gain weight. Other children, no matter how well they are fed, will go through a pudgy stage. Genetic makeup, breastfed or bottle, family poverty, intellectual stimulation, puberty, depression and emotional issues, thyroid problems, Prader-Willi Syndrome all these factors and more can affect a child's weight. If I was a parent, these are the steps I would take to care for this obese child. I know what it's like to be the overweight kid. I also know what it's like to parent a child who struggles with weight problems and a child with an eating disorder. So many factors enter into the equation. The important thing is to address the emotional health issues, provide good nutrition and fitness opportunities and let puberty take its course. Read on...
