Extreme Obesity in Children shown on Maury Show... Utterly Appalling.

[I_WILL_Lose_Weight]

Yesterday I went to the recreation center on my college campus intent on getting a good work out determined to lose my last 20 pounds. It was a bright day outside. The sun was shining, not too many clouds in the sky... the gym wasn't packed and my favorite machine was open. I even had my favorite CD with me.

Sounds peachy king so far, eh?

About 30 mins. into my hour long work out, I noticed that on one of my overhead TV's a show came on called the Maury show. And I swear, I had to double look, because on the "catcher" clip for this show it said:

"Help! My child weighs 212 lbs. at age 5 and I don't know what to do!"

I immediately turned off my CD player and plugged my headphones in so I could listen to this, and I have never been so disgusted in my life. People were bringing their children, ALL under the age of 5 and weighing well past 100 pounds. One even had to be on a breathing machine to sleep.

Who in the **** gave these people permission to be parents?

"Boo-hoo, my child screams and I have to give her what she wants." Pardon me, but I don't think your child wants to die due to her diet.

Some of the parents denied that they overfed their child. But I have to seriously doubt that. The average child under age 5 does not, in my experience, eat a bowl fool of cereal and a banana. Nor does the child eat a bucket of KFC (normally) for breakfast.

And then some people were actually defending parenting skills saying that it was child abuse not to feed their child what they want.

I am so appalled, and I believe that every single one of those children should be placed in foster homes. Or the parents should atleast attend counselling. Every single one of those children should have received spanks on the behind long ago, and they should have been taught how to eat properly before they were smart enough to try and sneak food out of the fridge.




I'm just... so mad I can't even think right now. These children could literally die in their sleep at any moment. Their lungs and their little hearts can't take that kind of strain. It is absolute child abuse; there is no other term for it.

You can probably find clips of it on www.mauryshow.com. But I can't bare to look at it =/ I absolutely wanted to cry for those children. Unless they go underneath some serious dieting they're never going to have a happy childhood, teenage life, and there's a possiblity they'll never reach their elder years.

[not2late]

Re: Extreme Obesity in Children shown on Maury Show... Utterly Appalling.

I work in a doctor's office and before that I worked at a Children's Hospital and a few hospital clinics....

Here are some things I've seen:

French fries, cookies and lollipops used as pacifyers.
1 year olds with nursing bottles filled with juice or soda.
Parents bribing the child with a cookie, candy or snack chips.
Parents arguing with the doctor or nursing staff that the scale cannot be correct and that their child can't weigh that much.
Parents denying that their 90 pound 3 year old is too heavy.

The problem is that many people do not know what a serving size is for themselves, let alone what a serving size is for a child.

[mirna05]

Re: Extreme Obesity in Children shown on Maury Show... Utterly Appalling.

I am trying to watch the clips but it does not work, I can not picture a kid weighing that much!!!

Every where I go people offers my daughters lolipops or cookies, at the drycleaner, at the supermarket, parties, the teacher at school as a reward, friends, even my husband and my dad!, I have to tell my daughters before we go out , to give me the lolipops so I could give them just one after they have supper. And people think "how can you be so mean that you dont let your daughter have a candy, poor of them!! they are just kids, kids love sweets""

[Curveegrrl]

Re: Extreme Obesity in Children shown on Maury Show... Utterly Appalling.

I can remember in senior kindergarten (so age 5...maybe just turned 6) weighing myself one morning and being 119lbs. I was happy about this because I had lost 2lbs. I may have been quite a bit taller than most kids my age, but I still woulda been heaps obese.

I can also remember being told "no" a lot. I couldn't take lollypops or sweets from the various shops that handed them out. There were lots of "no dessert" days. I certainly wasn't eating buckets of KFC for any meal. I think my parents tried really hard to control my diet. But somehow, I found ways to get the stuff I wanted. Trading school lunches, babysitters who gave treats, going to friends' houses...kids can get a lot of junk we don't want them to have.

It probably didn't help that I hated just about all vegetables and most fruit. I can remember some killer battles with my mum as she tried to get me to eat greens. I also hated exercising. Most kids like to run around and junk. I...just didn't. I'd have much rather read a book or watched TV. "Go. Play. OUTSIDE!" was another ongiong argument with my mum.

Being at an Atkins forum, we all know how inefective low cal/low fat diets can be for adults. They don't work much better for kids either. Being a fat kid, I was almost always on a diet. My parents wanted me to be a healthy weight. I wanted to not feel hungry. Using the doctor perscribed diets managed to achieve neither. Yes, parents should be trained in proper nutrition. But...there are a lot of conflicting views on what proper nutrition actually is.

Of course, I haven't seen this episode of Maury. I don't know much about the situations these families are in. But my knee-jerk reation is to suggest that not all obese kids are abused.

[sallyseachange]

Re: Extreme Obesity in Children shown on Maury Show... Utterly Appalling.

Child obesity has hit Italy too, recently... and that's something I didn't think would happen here, at least not so soon. Contrary to popular belief, Italians in Italy are not fat, despite the three 'P's (Pasta, Pizza, Pane). Italians eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and very little processed food. Usually, the quality of school dinners is really good and home cooking is great. But... fast food joints are springing up like mushrooms and Italian Mommas who now go out to work, are fast learning to cut corners and not use as much 'real' food. It's a real pity.

Reading the above posts makes me see how far this can go, and how quickly. I also saw that film SuperSizeMe just recently. Another scary movie!

Parents definitely need the educating.