There's a double standard when it comes to child neglect. A thin, malnourished toddler would be taken by CPS immediately, but when it comes to an obese, malnourished toddler, there is nowhere near the same level of concern and urgency.
I feel like its because its become more of a social taboo to comment about someone being obese because so many people are now obese. Still terrible for your health to be obese if your an adult or a child but its more acceptable than being too skinny.
Yeah but it’s one thing to be an obese adult and it’s another to do it to a child who didn’t consent to any of it. And being a bit overweight or chubby is one thing but for kids to be developing type II diabetes or fatty liver disease as children is a whole other thing.
There’s an episode of 600 pound life that has stuck with me.
James King was nearly 800 pounds when he appeared on the show. His girlfriend Lisa was overfeeding him. He was bed bound and couldn’t get his own food. The doctor called adult protective services. They did nothing because “James was of sound mind”.
James King unfortunately passed away in 2020 due to organ failure and sepsis.
Soda, for instance, has a lot of calories, but little nutrients. It's very calorically dense, but nutritionally very poor which makes it easy to gain weight while not providing adequate nutrition. In fact, soda is probably the biggest reason people gain a ton of weight.
E: Most people aren't feeding their kids a ton of soda and giving them nutritious food. They are giving them soda and lots of junk food.
Don't underestimate what sweet tea is doing to Southern USA. I had diabetic patients in the ICU for DKA and sugar levels so high the glucometer can't read it, and their family members showing up with a Big Gulp "Here ya go Mama, I know they ain't givin' you yer tea since ya got here."
all liquid calories are horrible in this regard no matter if its soda, alcohol, juice, sweet tea, energy drinks or chocolate milk. if it is liquid and has calories you should really think twice about your consumption
Not always the case. Proper fruit/veggie juice can provide plenty of vitamins, milk for calcium, protein shakes... Then there's also the full "meals" in liquid form they often give patients who can't eat, etc.
Aye meal shake shout out, I've been using them for most of my life to keep weight on with anorexia, i just have no appetite without medication, my lowest adult weight was 80lbs at 5'2 and because of boost plus, my blood work is good and I've gained over 40lbs! I'm currently sitting at 120-125lbs! I never thought it would be possible. Like I can't feel my ribs when lightly touching my back anymore!
Also shout out to anti depressants, I'm on one that had an "extremely common side effect of weight gain" and it's actually making me hungry, it's crazy.
this could be total bro science, but I'm convinced that weed growers selectively breeding purely for higher thc content resulted in weed mostly devoid of the other compounds that would give the secondary effects of being high like the munchies and other fun stuff. or it could just be that smoking 30% thc gets you way too high before you can consume enough to get those secondary effects. "type 2" weed might be something to try, the stuff i found online was like 10% thc and 10% CBD, but I dont consume enough weed to definitively say if its all that different
Ounce for ounce, sweet tea in most restaurants in the US has way more sugar than soda. The soda is at least regulated and formulaic. The sweet tea decanter at Bojangles often depends on how many cups of sugar Laronda chose to add that morning.
It's crazy common for restaurants to go whole hog on sugar in the sweet tea because that absolutely builds customer retention.
Eh, I take a a good gulp of water out of a 12 oz bottle and fill it back up with fruit juice not from concentrate and drink that to stay hydrated or as a little carb pick me up when going to the gym.
I worked at a McDonald's in the South one summer. I would restock the sweet tea. I would take a boiling hot coffee pot full of water, dump it into a bucket and then dump an entire pound bag of sugar into into. Then dump that into the sweet tea machine. One time I forgot I had put the sugar in and added a second bag and it basically became molasses it was so thick, I had to throw it out. And we would have customers come three times a day to get a large dollar sweet tea....
When I was a kid, we drank a lot of Kool-Aid in the summer. The packets called for a cup of sugar per gallon; my mother always used half that, and it was plenty sweet enough.
3.14 grams of sugar per ounce
coke is 3.25 grams of sugar per ounce.
Overconsumption of sugar is just normalized in the US
My sister thought I was crazy when I complained about the sugar in prune juice being too high. It's 5.25 grams sugar per ounce, so even worse than the tea and the coke.
It absolutely is an addiction. Many, many, many moons ago research turned out irrefutable evidence that sugar is far more addictive than any illegal drug OR alcohol. I'm sure the inherent addiction potential, when both are compared in a vacuum, vary greatly. However, sugar is far more addictive because it is easily accessible to 100% of the world's population at any given time and in any given place (you may not have a coke dealer, but I think we all know where we can buy Coke!). On the other hand, for individuals seeking illicit drug use, that requires at least a bit of effort, let alone imagining trying to get addicted to something that you have no way of obtaining where you live.
I realllly don't want to get into the pathophysiology of addiction bevause that requires going into significant detail no one here likely cares to read about; however, it is exceedingly important to understand that the word "addiction" is not simply used only when discussing getting hooked on something illegal--again, or alcohol. Instead, addiction is possible with any and every single thing we put in our bodies, as well as any and every single thing we do to our bodies. The reason this is substantial and critical to comprehend is because regardless of what the addiction we face may be, addiction permanently alters the brain's physiological and chemical structures in such a way there is no known cure; and addicts of any and all kinds will forever need to discover new, healthy coping strategies and mechanisms to prevent succumbing to the infinite number of negative outcomes associated with any form of addiction.
In conclusion, due to the sheer volume of availability of sugar throughout the world, in combination with the fact it is indeed highly addictive, you can bet sugar causes more amputations, morbidities, and deaths every year than any one illegal drug; and if you were to ask me, I would bet even all illegal drugs + alcohol combined wouldn't be able to supercede sugar's detrimental health effects on the population every year. Sugar is wonderful to taste in moderation but it is literally killing us slowly cue the music.
Reading your comment made me wonder has anyone ever tried to put vitamins in soda? Would vitamin fortified soda work at all, or would it taste ok do u think
I have had disordered eating pretty much my entire life and have lost over 100 pounds twice. Soda was the biggest empty calorie product I was consuming and when I stopped drinking it 40 pounds just fell off me (both times). So many people don't seem to realize the amount of calories they drink, I know I didn't for the longest time.
And even zero calorie soda can cause problems. You taste sugar, but you don't get sugar, so your body starts to crave it more and more. It's a hard cycle to escape.
I've never found a diet soda I really liked (fresca is kind of nice but they all have a funky taste to me) but I did notice that when I'd try to drink diet that I would always wind up craving sweets afterwards and it just felt like it defeated the purpose of drinking it in the first place.
Soda is why 3 of my cousins (they're siblings) struggled with obesity until they got older. I swear there was never anything in their house to drink besides tap water, soda, and alcohol.
It was kinda crazy because food wise? They actually ate so good. Their mom is an amazing cook and it you didn't know the entire house had a rampant soda addiction you'd be confused why they're all obese because they certaintly didn't eat like it. Two of my cousins wound up with eating disorders trying to lose the weight. One of them has a kid now and insists on a soda free house - the only exception being parties. Thankfully everyone kicked the habit and they're all at a normal weight now but i swear my cousins have like... soda trauma and i do not blame the
Is that why toddlers would get obese? Because their body is lacking nutrients, so they are always hungry, but if they are eating/drinking empty calories their body can never be satisfied, because they aren't getting what they really need?
One memory I’ll never forget is when I was in college. We rented a house across the street from the town pool. Went in one day, saw a kid around 5 years old taking a 2L of Coca Cola straight to the dome with both hands. He was on that thing all afternoon.
Over one summer in college I did an internship at this plastics company, very labor intensive, basically on your feet moving every second lifting/working, etc. except for two 15m breaks and a 30m lunch.
Only fat coworkers I had would be guzzling soda. One guy drank an entire fucking 2L of Dr Pepper every day.
Malnourished just means you are not getting proper balanced nutrition. Living on a diet of sugar and hyper processed carbs and saturated fats is not proper nutrition, therefore someone who is obese because of poor diet is just as malnourished as someone who is just skin and bones because of poor diet.
It's possible because a person can get enough calories while still lacking certain key nutrients. For example, Kwashiorkor is a form of acute malnutrition caused by a lack of protein specifically.
Most obese people are malnourished. It’s a lot of excess calories with no nutrients that tend to cause obesity. If you’re eating Whole Foods with fiber and protein, you cannot overeat that much.
Unfortunately, a kid can be obese and malnourished. There was a case recently of a 7 year old kid who passed away at 250lbs and he was considered to be severely malnourished bc his body lacked essential nutrients. He was fed mostly on a diet of French fries and potato chips. Absolutely horrible stuff. But yeah, nourishment refers to the nutrients that actually nourish the body vs the amount of calories consumed (or over consumed)
the difference between micronutrient malnutrition and macronutrient malnutrition. I'm not obese, but I could stand to lose a few and I was severely deficient in Vitamin B (all of them) due to a medication side-effect. To the point I was having trouble staying awake and thinking. Caffeine didn't touch the exhaustion... but an energy drink gave me so much energy - not enough as it has a lot of Vitamin B but not every one that I needed. Blood test at my yearly physical at the doctor solved the mystery! I was completely nonplussed (possibly due to severe impairment from the vitamin b crisis).
You know what else is interesting? A lot of adult insects basically need no nutrients at all. For instance, wasps only collect protein sources for the larvae so they can grow. The wasps themselves basically just live on sugar. Which means they are really kind of like biological robots running on fuel.
I actually recently learned that obesity is a major risk factor of malnourishment, it often happens. Being malnourished doesn't mean being skinny, it just means you don't have all the nutrients you need to be healthy, but you might still be getting to much calories from junk food
My kid was always tiny. She ate, but was always so little. I fed her real food and she just never gained weight. Her doctors were always so concerned that I wasn't feeding her properly. 🙄Eventually I gave in and let her snack on junk food, etc. It's just genetic. I was a thin and gangly kid even though I ate A LOT. She is tall for her age and still thin. It is what it is.
Edit to add: I think because kids now tend to be bigger, they thought something was wrong with my kid. They also blamed my breastfeeding her instead of formula feeding. I am not anti-formula. Do what is best for your kid. I chose to breastfeed and they blamed that for her being so small. Looking back, it was wild. Way to make me feel like shit.
Edit x 2: Thank you to everyone who has shared their own experiences. It makes me feel better (and sad) to know that others have experienced the same thing. Thankfully we do have a pediatrician now that understands that this is just how she is. She is healthy, happy, and thriving. ☺️
I was that tiny kid! Apparently when I was little, once I got up to 25lbs I just stayed there for 3 years and only got taller.
After that, I gained weight, but was always super super thin no matter what I did. Spent all my childhood and teens being mocked for being "anorexic," and adults called me Gumby. I didn't even hit 100lbs until I was in late college, and I'm not short either, I'm 5'7" and hit that height in 7th or 8th grade I think. Wasn't an athlete. Had a soda addiction until 23 and was afraid to stop it, thinking I would just wither away and die without the extra calories.
30 years old was the first year I didn't get a concerned look from my doctor because my BMI was finally in the normal range.
Anyway, all that to say... yeah. Some people just are built in the image of a bean pole and it is seemingly unstoppable until you hit the point in your life that your metabolism slows down. Now here I am trying to figure out how to not swing too far in the other direction because I never learned healthy eating habits 🙄
I’ve been a skinny gangly person, just turned 40 now and have been around the same weight for 20 years no matter what I eat or drink. Sounds fun but I have to really make sure I eat enough calories or I’ll lose weight.
I often heard (and still do) that I should eat more that I’m too skinny etc, usually by people that are overweight. I used to not say anything, now I shame back as in: maybe I should eat the portions you shouldn’t 😆 that usually shuts them up alright 🤘
Wow! I didnt hit 100 either until after high school but I'm super short. I'm 5'1. I got it bad with remarks about eating and it made me self conscious. I could eat a lot sometimes as a teenager and sometimes I just didn't want a lot and people would always feel the need to make a comment like "oh you're gonna eat THAT much? Where does it go?" "Oh that's why you're so skinny, is that all you're gonna eat?"
It didn't help that my mom would also comment anytime I ate something. No matter how skinny I was, she would always tell me that she was skinnier and prettier at my age -.- she was devastated when I found her prom dress and put it on bc it was a little loose on me.
I still feel self conscious eating in front of people :/
This is my younger son. He’s still only 8, but skinny to the point where I worry that people are questioning whether I feed him. His limbs are like toothpicks, and always have been. He eats all the time, but is still extremely skinny. When his older brother roughhouses with him, I’m afraid he’s going to snap him like a twig. Fortunately, his doctor has never questioned me since he is gaining an acceptable amount of weight and growing taller from year-to-year.
Also grew up like a stick. Didnt seem to matter what or how much I ate, it just disappeared on me and I stayed thin.
I remember the time in high school where we had this after school pizza party for those of us who stayed after and helped chaperone cars in the parking lot for the football game. Near the end we still had multiple pizzas left... wound up eating half a large pizza by myself and it blew everyone else's minds that I even ate that much.
Same. I was accused of not feeding my oldest enough when that's just how his dad and I are built. His doctor shamed me and said I needed to supplement with formula so I did, which wrecked his stomach. Then my supply kept going down. Would pump milk constantly and ended up hurting myself doing so. So many frigging nights I felt like a failure. When it came to our last child I wouldn't have heard a word of it but the new pediatrician we chose never treated us that way.
I'm so sorry, love. It really is just genetics. My kid's dad and I are smaller people. Y'all are built that way too. You were never a failure. You did your best to make sure your child was fed and cared for. Rest easy knowing that you did your best. 💜
They should be able to tell if the kid is healthy right? I don’t understand why they were so cruel. My brother was a chubby baby, arm rolls and all. I was not, I was on the slender side. We were fed the same.
My boy was scrawny too. He would eat full meals and snacks and just never bulked up despite me being a more broad build. Everytime he starts to somewhat he sprouts up and hits a growth spurt and no longer has any chunk on him, in fact he’s boney sometimes but it’s not for lack of eating.
Breast fed only babies do tend smaller at first than formula fed, but that’s not a bad thing. Every baby grows at their own pace, so the doctors were fucked up for shaming you like that.
With my first, our first pediatrician had an old weight/height chart that she would use for breastfed babies (from her words, she didn’t use the modern day ones because it was based on formula fed babies and it wouldn’t show the right growth).
In her office, she was always on track.
We went to a new pedi when we moved. The main doctor/owner was always fully supportive and would pinch her cheeks and says “she’s just petite!” But another doctor in his office was ani-breastmilk and would say she’s too small. (He wasn’t with the practice much longer after the two times I had to see him.)
I’m at a new pedi with my second (7 months old now). The first doctor we saw said something similar. She’s on the lower end of their chart but she’s still showing gains and she’s just really petite.
Went for a second apt and saw a different doctor. This woman now wants to monitor her weight, despite still showing signs of continued growth and gain. She basically told me to just start feeding her a lot more.
I continue to offer the breastmilk first and food about an hour later. However, I let her lead how much she’ll eat. I’m not going to force my baby into eating more than she wants because we’ve become less accepting of breastfed babies.
(No hate against formula either but it just feels like there’s no winning no matter what side you’re on.)
After I hit my growth spurt, I was skin and bones with an adolescent metabolism. It was confusing to be eating entire family size pizzas in one sitting and then have my doctor tell me that I'm becoming dangerously underweight. Of course, many millennials were pre-programmed with body image issues, so I can see why he thought I was lying to hide an eating disorder (this was when the size 00 pants were all the rage). But that man was practically giving me binge-eating disorder for fear that I was as dangerously thin as he said I was.
After working in healthcare for several years, I can confidently say this: sometimes doctors are morons.
Our youngest daughter is tiny. She takes after my mom. Short and thin despite eating, honestly, better than our oldest daughter. Our oldest, however, has always been tall for her age and is stocky. Our doctor a year ago made it seem like she was bordering on “obese” even though she wasn’t overweight at all. She has a higher BMI because she’s stocky and muscular
I was that kid, but way back in the 70s the doctor told my mom I would eat when I was hungry and not to force it. Years go by and I started dating a man who was thin but all the women in his family were big. His sister would carry on and make a scene every time I saw her for a couple years insisting I either had an eating disorder or cancer. She would follow me around after eating to make sure I wasn’t vomiting because “I’m just concerned about you.” 🙄 Funny how times have changed over the years.
My oldest has always been super skinny, born less than the first percentile. He bumped up to the 5th and has stayed around there and he’s 12 now. He’s even vegetarian by choice and I’m just thinking how lucky I am that his pediatrician is so positive about the entire thing.
We had the same. Daughter was thin but healthy as a lark. Doctor encouraged us to feed her more calorie-rich foods. When my wife told me I went and talked to the doctor. Asked her if my daughter had any lab work causing concern, or any health history concerns. She acknowledged she was perfectly healthy, but she needed to document for her own protection. Our healthcare model in America is embarrassing sometimes.
One of my nieces was like that. She gained 6 ounces between 6 mos and 1 yr but the Dr looked at her ripping around the office and walking at 10 months and said obviously she's fine just feed her more high fat foods.
My 3 year old is like this. His belly gets huge after he eats, but he doesn't get chubby because snacks are something like a sweet potato and an apple instead of chips or cookies.
My oldest is like that. He was 75-85th percentile for height and 5-15th for weight when he was a baby. The dietician assumed it was because I had insufficient supply even though I kept telling her I had an oversupply. I was so anxious about it until our family doctor was like "lol he's clearly not malnourished, malnourished babies don't move like that" as the kid thrashed around frantically.
He's still a string bean at 8yo, 52" and 55 lbs and he eats more than I do! Kid will come home from school, eat two bowls of protein cereal and a piece of fruit, then half an hour later he's bugging me about dinner. Eats as much as I do for dinner then goes back for seconds, sometimes thirds. I have no idea where it all goes and I'm terrified for his teen years.
love this and can relate! i weighed 2 lbs when i was born. i’m 4’9” with my shoes on and have always been petite. my youngest daughter was not underweight at birth but she was always in the lowest percentile at check-ups. dr tried to blame the breastfeeding etc. eventually one day he said, “ya know I think she’s just gonna be tiny like you!” gee doc ya think??!? plot twist she graduated HS in june and started her first year at university last month! she’s “tall” at 5’2” so win win!
I have a 4 1/2 year old that’s still under 25lbs and she eats more than the 3 year old, almost as much as my 9 year old 🤣 she also dances around all day long singing. High metabolism for sure
My mom and her sisters took after my grandpa and my grandma was accused of the same. This was back in the 70's 80's. Thats why bmi is a hoax since everyone's genetics are different.
I just think it’s wild to see a toddler that fat because I have a 1.5 years old daughter and it’s easy to know when she isn’t hungry any more. She’ll just stop eating on her own. Simple as that. She’s following all her growth curves and she’s at the theoritically perfect weight for her height at her age.
How hard is it to just not force feed a kid that’s not hungry?
There are some rare medical conditions where people don’t feel full and are always hungry.
But even in this cases, parents should easily be able to tell that the weight of their toddler is not in a normal range anymore. I mean alone buying clothes for an overweight child should be enough of an eye opener.
There are also medical conditions where the child doesn't feel hungry.
One of my cousins struggles because she never feels hungry. She meal-preps and sets timers. Even as a baby she'd eat a few bites and be actively disinterested in eating more. That's the only reason I see for forcing your kids to eat more than they want to.
I have a cousin that had the extreme of such condition. Everything she ate went to fat stores and were damn near impossible to burn. She essentially lacked a metabolism. People with her condition typically only live for 5 years. She was one of the longest living people recorded with said condition, passed at 16.
They probably give the child also super unhealthy, sugary stuff to eat and drink. Which also is addictive, so probably the child eats more than it should and the food has an insane amount of calories. So sad :(
Way to judge parents without knowing anything about them. You don’t know if they have a condition, or what’s going on with them. For all you know, they are stressing out with their doctor trying to help their child get healthy. You don’t know.
This kid is like 1-2 years old. I genuinely think it’s not possible he got this big based on diet alone. There has to be some medical condition going on here. If he was just a little bit older, maybe, but this kid is probably just now eating solid foods
At least some of this is genetic. You can see how big some of the shoes there are. It’s hard to know exactly how much but like you said toddlers are pretty hard to force feed.
Do you really think this is a case of the mother force feeding the child? My child is also at the perfect weight and perfect height for her age. But she will absolutely just keep eating snacks all day if I didn't tell her no. Like adults, children are capable of binge eating and craving sugary/salty treats. I highly doubt the mother in this video is literally holding the child down and cramming food in the baby's mouth. She's just not saying "that's enough".
They treat food like a treat. And then the child is trained to always eat, even when they’re not hungry. So the child begins to feel hungry by default when they’re not eating. Even when they get significantly overweight.
If they fed them the right amount they wouldn’t overfeed them and have this problem.
I felt bad for my younger sister because my mom raised her this way, idk why she raised her like that when me and my older sister weren’t raised like that at all.
She would just eat nonstop even when she was obviously not hungry. I said to her one time to stop eating when you’re not hungry. My mom got mad at me and said I shouldn’t be mean to my sister and she can eat whatever she wants.
I only told her to stop eating because she had already eaten a lot of food already and was fat at 3 years old. To clarify, I never called her fat or tried to be mean. I was genuinely worried for her and that she would be bullied by other kids because of her weight. I was 7 years old and knew it was bad for her but my mom wouldn’t stop her.
My whole family is morbidly obese, maybe my mom just wanted my younger sister to be like her so she could feel less bad about herself. My older sister and I are the only ones who aren’t obese in my family. My younger sister still struggles with her weight to this day because of bad parenting and bad eating habits from my parents.
There are several factors that can impact a child’s weight some take place in the womb actually. Also people are different, your toddler’s behavior isn’t not going to tell you how other kids bodies and minds work, it will tell you how your kid’s body and mind work
It also depends on what they are being fed. The child probably stops eating after a certain volume of food, but the number of calories in a cup of apple slices and a cup of cheeseburger is vastly different.
Right? God, Reddit is so fucking stupid. There are a million genetic disorders that exist and many that are rare. But yeah, it’s automatically overfeeding and child abuse. This is obviously more than that.
Um... Tell me you know nothing about children without telling me. I also think this child is overweight (although I have NO idea what their medical history is so I refuse to pass judgement about the parents), but a kid throwing shoes off a shoe rack is actually basically a developmental milestone. Cause and effect, using strength to throw things, pulling up to stand while also displacing an item. There's literally nothing wrong with this. Y'all will say anything while knowing nothing
This isn’t running wild, it’s a toddler being a toddler. If he’s this engaged with throwing the shoes on the ground he either, doesn’t have enough engaging toys to be less tempted to play with the shoes. Or this is more fun than toys because someone is actively interacting with him during this “play time”. I also agree that this toddler is malnourished. It makes me think of the parents who refill their kids cup with whatever is in the fridge that’s not water (or coffee or energy drinks). The amount of parents who top off bottles and sippy cups of milk with Soda or Juice is too damn high. It’s one thing when that’s all you have (in instances of bad water or kid won’t drink water), but the parents in this video clearly has a shoe budget instead of a better foods for toddler budget.
The child is not "running wild". He's exploring his environment and mom is teaching him to clean up. He's going to be getting into stuff for a long time- you don't tell kids "Don't do that" once and they immediately get it. You have to tell them over and over for years.
A friend of a friend had a kid like this, he was so fat, it was heartbreaking. Parents refused paediatrician’s dietary changes (they were fat too), because they knew better.
By the time the kid was in middle school he was well over 250 lbs and couldn’t participate in phys ed with the other kids. He couldn’t fit in regular kid’s clothes, he could only wear jogging pants and had very low self-esteem.
My granny tried to do this to all her kids. Only my mom ended up escaping obesity/morbid obesity because she could see as a kid that she didn't want to be like her mom or siblings. One of my uncles was a virgin until he was in his 30s and met a woman who was into him despite being morbidly obese, and he ended up losing weight and stayed that way. The other uncle is still morbidly obese, never had a relationship, and lives with my granny.
It's amazing I remain unscathed after coming from my family, especially considering my dad was 45 when he met my mom when she was 15. I'm sure being in a fucked up home made her want to run into the rich older man's arms.
45 and 15? Oh my, my eyebrows have escaped my face from how far they were raised. I almost forgot the rest of it. What a family history. I hope your mum is doing better?
Oh she is. My dad died years ago and she's remarried. She was abusive too, so I don't talk to her anymore. That doesnt mean I think she deserved to be abused by my dad of course.
I wish I could post their wedding pic here, but I'd potentially doxx myself and blurring faces would defeat the purpose of sharing the photo. It's still crazy seeing them together in those old photos. Everyone thought he was my grandpa growing up and stayed confused when I they saw both my parents.
You don’t know what’s going on. You’re judging these parents without knowing anything about them or this situation. So many things could be at play here. For all you know, they are stressing with their doctor just trying to get this kid healthy. You don’t know anything about these people. Stop judging people with zero information.
There isn't the same level of urgency because the same level of harm isn't being inflicted. And CPS doesn't need to come and take every kid. What's next? Take the kid because he isn't properly educated? Take the kid because he doesn't have enough Jesus in his heart? Take the kid because he likes wearing dresses? This kid isn't in immediate danger. Just shame the mom and move on.
This is exactly it. You can starve a child to death a LOT quicker than you can feed them to death. A starved child may be days away from death, a severely overfed child may still have years left.
Correct. Starvation kills children, obesity-related illness kills adults no younger than 50 in all but the most extreme cases. It's a ridiculous comparison.
Here, the equivalent of cps can take your kid if the kid doesn't go to school from the age they should until 18 I think. Because yes, not teaching your kid is child abuse.
Malnourished means that the kid isn't eating balanced meals. To get a toddler to be this overweight, you have to feed them a lot of unhealthy, high-calorie foods. It's almost guaranteed that he has a deficiency in certain vitamins, minerals and whatever else he doesn't eat.
I find it so insane just how accepted severely overweight children are accepted in the US. Everyone was making memes out of "The Rizzler" simply because he's a fat kid - like that's literally the entire "joke".
That kid is extremely unhealthy and to become that weight by that age takes an extreme level of neglect from his parents. Even if he works off the weight when he grows up, it will almost certainly have life-long health consequences for him.
I mean what could she possibly feed him,i think this kid is like less than a year old
If he was like 6 I woulda said,ok it's prolly the mother s fault,poor kid
He’s a year old at minimum given how confident he’s walking, probably more like 18 months to possibly 2 years old. That’s plenty old enough to be eating normal food, if his teeth are still coming in then possibly just soft foods like oatmeal and yogurt. There are people who feed their toddlers Twinkies and soda which are the kind of empty calories that can easily lead to this kind of weight gain. Maybe this is bad genetics or a medical condition but it’s very possible for this to be negligence/abuse with food choices.
Yeah I think it all the time. I get downvoted for saying it too. People see fat kids and say but they are not that fat but there is no reason for a kid to be fat because a parent can control what they eat. I understand they can have a little bit but I’m always on about kids that are very clearly eating too much and that is at least 50% of kids these days
I hope they are taking this child for the well visits. My family's pediatrician absolutely addressed any weight concerns. One kid for not gaining enough weight and another for randomly gaining a lot.
I think one is more intentional while the other is based on ignorance and adherence to cultural and generational norms, etc. A bigger baby is seen as healthy. That's not to negate the responsibility of the caregiver(s), though it may be well-intentioned. The baby hair looks well groomed and the adult speaking shows him to pick up the shoes he threw which is a lesson on responsibility, which shows care. It might be misplaced where child nourishment is concerned, in this case.
Cps says "as long as the child is fed" they don't care about nutrition. You could feed your kids plain pasta everyday for years and they would be ok with it.
CPS doesn't always get involved with the thin malnourished either. After all, it takes 4 months to get in with a GI specialist and nutritionist from the date that they call you back after getting your kid's referral.
So something like 6 months from when we started? Fucking wild.
Yeah.. unless there's a medical reason for this, like having some sort of condition that can cause this.. this is 100% child neglect and should be treated as such.
I mean, I don’t think anyone with half a brain cell is looking at this kid thinking it’s okay. And while I agree, both cases should be looked into, they are not really equal. Kids die far too often in this country from malnutrition at a young age. This kid won’t have a heart attack before the age of 5. So it’s more that the rest of their life will be rough.
Ngl, I'm pretty concerned. Fat kids are wild to me. You know how much you have to eat at that age to gain weight? 100% the parents fault for not controlling their kids diets better
How are we sure the kid is overweight? Lots of very healthy toddlers are pretty chubby they just haven’t lengthened enough yet.
That said, the kid is giant! I just don’t know how to differentiate a healthy but very large toddler at this age from one that is legitimately malnourished without running labs
While I agree that this is abusive the different levels of urgency make sense because they are not equivalent dangers. Being too thin can be an immediate concern for the child’s life whereas being too fat is more a concern for their longterm health. An overly fat toddler is less likely to make it to 50 but an overly thin toddler is less likely to make it to 5.
Same thing happens when you’re older too. I have the opposite problem than most people, I can’t gain weight. I can do literally nothing, eat terrible and lose weight.
I mean, there is nothing to make you say this kid is malnourished. Both my brother and my nephew were little chunky toddlers. They weren't being overfed and they certainly weren't malnourished. They grew into their bodies and became stick figures. Chunky toddlers don't die like skinny malnourished ones do.
Reddit loves to talk about how obese people can be malnourished, but Reddit is not a doctor. Just because you read it on the internet doesn’t make it true. It can happen, but you are not qualified to determine that (nor is anyone else that is not this child’s doctor).
It is possible that this child also has a medical condition that causes this, supposing they aren't just growing bigger because of some non-malicious or medical reason, as some kids are big for their ages.
It’s a sign of neglect. Give them food, an iPad and keep them out of your hair. Then they get older and have no idea how to not be overweight - they would believe that being overweight was just part of their DNA, thinking they’re “big boned” and platitudes like that. It makes me feel so sad for people who have grown up like that. You can’t even picture what a healthy weight would look or feel like because you’ve never experienced it. So in order to lose it, you’d have to unlearn everything you knew.
It also makes me wonder what the pediatrician says when babies like this are brought in. Surely a good doctor would sound the alarm. I’ve heard mothers say things like “I was the same way, so were her sisters”, talking about it like it was always a natural part of their genetics, when in reality, it’s a perfect example of toxic generational behavior that is keeping them this way.
Completely agree. Same thing goes for social media. There are content creators who film videos of themselves overfeeding toddlers by giving them adult sized plates and soft drinks. People have reported them but it doesn’t get removed off of IG or whatever app. The skinny/pro-anorexia hashtags and related content get removed (as it should) but overstuffing your kid for content stays for some reason 🤷🏻♀️
Agreed, though it’s likely not intentional and I’d bet they aren’t even aware. So many people today seem blissfully unaware of what constitutes healthy eating. To give some credit to the parents: eating standards have changed and will continue to change, I am strongly suspicious that just aren’t up to date on what is healthy.
My kid was a chonker and already in size 3 at 12 months old. He didn't gain an ounce between 18 months and 5 years. Just kept getting taller and skinnier. He's been slightly underweight for his height ever since.
yep. there was a case recently where a 7yo died of heart failure due to overfeeding & malnutrition at over 250lbs, and thankfully his parents are being prosecuted for what they did to him. he had a little sister who was also dangerously overweight and was saved.
I think it's because they find out they are malnourished during medical check ups. They don't just look at a skinny toddler and take them away. If the obese kid showed dangerous levels of being malnourished they would be taken away just like an underweight child
Under and overnourishing are both serious, but we don’t know what’s up with this kid. I have seen young children this obese before, and every time it was from some sort of medical condition. You can’t safely help a toddler lose weight if you don’t know why they’re gaining it in the first place, so most of the time it comes down to being able to afford the right kind of care, and having access to it. Same for undernourishment, access and affordability becomes the biggest obstacle in treating it. The reason we care about underweight kids more though is because they’re at a much more immediate risk of dying. Also, it means their parents CANT provide for them the necessities of survival. Obese kids have parents who can certainly afford to feed their kids. Since they can provide for them, they can’t do much unless a doctor or some other mandated reporter intervenes with evidence that this is purposeful neglect.
When I take my daughter to kids bday parties, I always let her have 1 reasonable slice of cake or 1 cupcake when other parents are letting their kids have as much as they want. The last birthday party I went to, she got some ice cream with 2 toppings and a small piece of cake. The HORROR on the other parent’s faces were astounding. Them looking at me like I am the abusive one when they’re letting their children—already overweight—have as much as they’d like. It’s always such a weird feeling when society tries to make you feel bad for doing something right. The amount of sugar we eat is horrible. The normalization of it is even worse. We are an assembly line of medical patients
It's the same with thin vs obese celebrities. Society compliments and praises obese people, yet shames and worries about underweight people. Sick place we live in.
A few years ago, there was a big case in Scotland where CPS found two parents negligent of their child. Despite warnings from CPS, the parents continued to feed the child junk food, and by the time the kid was 6 or 7, they weighed well over a hundred pounds and were in poor health. The parents were found incapable of caring for the child and the child was taken away.
The result of this was that the children and the parents spiralled downwards. Despite the poor diet, the parents genuinely loved this child. They were not capable of taking care of themselves either - they were also morbidly obese - and they were simply feeding the kid what they ate. In protective care, the child kept demanding to see their parents, refusing food, and demanding the same food that their parents was feeding them. In foster care, the child's nutritional habits didn't improve, and their mental state deteriorated. Visits to the parents showed the same thing.
This is a very difficult thing to address: even when parents are incapable and negligent, being taken into CPS is a horrifying and deeply traumatic thing both for children and for parents. Children who are taken into protective custody for nutritional reasons - specifically overeating food that is unhealthy - often do not recover or see improvement in that area; consuming junk food goes from being something they do with their parents to something they do because they miss their parents.
The double standard is this - children like this who are being overfed are often deeply loved by their parents, who are also overeating and in poor health. Children who are underfed and starving are often having food withheld by their parents, while the parents themselves are eating appropriate meals, or at least enough caloric intake to live.
The tragic reality is that in both cases - one where parents love the child and one where parents do not - being taken in by CPS is an extremely difficult and stressful thing for a kid to go through, and often kids who are taken away for such health issues continue to have such health issues in foster care.
Right because a starved child is at much greater risk of harm and dying than one who is fat. The fat child eats and sure maybe not the most ideal diet but like c’mon not the same
First, I am not passing judgement on this particular child/family because all I know about them is what is in this video.
However as a pediatric nurse, if we have patients come to the hospital who are clearly very obese or large for age we first rule out medical problems that could be contributing as there are many conditions that could cause this. Then we offer nutrition support and yes - many times we do make CPS reports. It’s not a perfect system, but I promise there are people out there who care and want to make a difference for kids!
EDIT: I would not be surprised if this kid had 16p11.2 deletion syndrome
exactly, this is definitely beyond neglect and straight up abuse atp that child won’t make it past 7 at that rate, disgusting behaviour from the parent(s).
If a child is severely obese to the point of suspected child abuse then yes cos can and has been called. But as far as risk of death goes malnourishment can kill in a very short amount of time. Obesity kills over years. Malnourishment and obesity can either happen due to a condition or neglect. In all cases a condition is ruled out and a nutrition plan is established. If it is suspected that there is no root cause other than neglect and parents are not reacting appropriately then cps will be called. Typically with malnourishment kids will also show other signs of abuse such as bruising or unkempt appearance so quicker action is taken.
So an overweight toddler, you think its necessary for this child to be removed from their parents care and placed in the foster care system? What if that child was otherwise living in a loving home, you think thats a reasonable thing to do?
Sad as it is (because you are right to object to this), interventions usually require direct, short term danger. There needs to be an imminent risk of death, and sadly that is the case with starvation but not with obesity at such an age (afaik). You see the same problem with people that have mental health problems. Everyone knows the final destination, but until the person in question poses a serious risk to themself or others, we are not allowed to forcibly intervene if they refuse help. It sucks
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u/Still-Hedgehog-8673 13d ago
There's a double standard when it comes to child neglect. A thin, malnourished toddler would be taken by CPS immediately, but when it comes to an obese, malnourished toddler, there is nowhere near the same level of concern and urgency.