Fat boy may be put in care

[Demi]

The Times
London, UK
25 February, 2007


Fat boy may be put in care

AN eight-year-old boy who weighs 14 stone, more than three times the average for his age, may be taken into care if his mother fails to improve his diet.

Connor McCreaddie, from Wallsend, near Newcastle upon Tyne, has broken four beds and five bicycles. The family claims to have a history of intolerance to fruit or vegetables.

On Tuesday his mother and grandmother will attend a formal child protection conference to decide his future, which could lead to proceedings to take him into care.

Connor could be placed on the child protection register, along with victims of physical and sexual abuse, or on the less serious children in need register.

The intervention of social services is a landmark in the fight against youth obesity.

The boy’s mother, Nicola McKeown, said: “If Connor gets taken into care that is the worst scenario there could be. Hopefully, we will be able to work through it and come up with a good plan and he will just be put on the at-risk register or some other register. That wouldn’t be so bad because, hopefully, there will be some help for us at the end of it.”

Two specialist obesity nurses, a consultant paediatrician, the deputy head of Connor’s school, a police officer and at least two social workers are expected to be on the panel deciding what action should be taken.

One National Health Service source said: “We have attempted many times to arrange for Connor to have appointments with community and paediatric nutritionists, public health experts, school nurses and social workers to weigh and measure him and to address his diet, but the appointments have been missed.

“Taking the child into care or putting him on the child protection register is absolutely the last resort. We do not do these things lightly but we have got to consider what effect this life-style is having on his health. Child abuse is not just about hitting your children or sexually abusing them, it is also about neglect.”

The source added: “The long-term health effects of obesity such as diabetes are well known and it is concerning that Connor is more than twice the weight he should be. There has to be some parental responsibility.”

McKeown will appear on Tonight with Trevor McDonald on ITV tomorrow.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1434607.ece

[Demi]

Focus: The thin line between poor diet and child abuse

The Times
London, UK
25 February, 2007


This child is just eight years old but weighs 14 stone. This week social workers must decide whether to remove him from home and place him in care
Sarah-KateTempleton

Though Connor McCreaddie is only an eight-year-old boy, his sheer size has turned him into a demolition man. At 14 stone, and with a boy’s abandon, he has broken four beds, six lavatory seats and five bicycles. And he’s still got a lot of growing to do.

His obesity and lack of fitness mean he has difficulty walking. Sometimes he cannot even manage the seven-minute stroll to school, leading to a poor attendance record and missed education.

Connor’s diet, by his mother’s admission, is appalling. Although he is cutting back on junk food, until recently he was eating four packets of crisps a day, and it was typical for him to consume four Yorkshire puddings with his evening meal and demand snacks every 20 minutes.

The stakes are high for his health and education; now they are about to get even higher for his family.

On Tuesday, Connor, his mother and grandmother will attend a “child protection conference” at North Tyneside council in Wallsend, near Newcastle upon Tyne, to decide Connor’s fate.

Two specialist obesity nurses, a consultant paediatrician, the deputy head teacher of Connor’s school, a police officer, and at least two social workers are expected to be present.

They will weigh questions with wide-ranging implications for the growing army of obese children in Britain: is Connor a victim of abuse? Should he be placed on the child protection register or taken into care?

Connor’s case is one of the first of its kind, but illustrates what doctors say is going to become a much broader trend.

The number of children aged under 11 who are obese leapt from 9.9% in 1995 to 13.4% in 2004. Doctors warn that signs of heart disease and rates of type 2 diabetes, which previously affected only adults, are soaring in obese youngsters.

As a result politicians are pushing for earlier intervention and, in extreme cases, this could mean children being taken away from their parents.

Dr Alyson Hall, consultant child psychiatrist at the Emanuel Miller Centre for Families and Children in east London, says that, in extreme cases, obese children need to be taken into foster care to ensure their safety.

“I have known instances where local authorities have had to consider placement outside the family. It has been voluntary so far, and has not gone to care proceedings, but that could happen,” she said.

“These are children suffering from sleep apnoea and serious health complications from diabetes. Initially, social workers try to help the parents but, in some cases, the parents are the problem.”

Parents can no longer claim they are unaware of the dangers: they have long been warned about childhood obesity. The wake-up call about the seriousness of the epidemic came three years ago when Sir John Krebs, then the chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said that poor diet and lack of exercise among today’s youngsters would lead to them having a lower life expectancy than their parents for the first time in more than a century.

Although statistics had pointed to the obesity timebomb, the spectre of life expectancy falling focused the nation’s attention on the problem.

Since then there have been reams of reports and statistics charting the annual rises in the number of obese children. The House of Commons health select committee, the British Medical Association, the Department of Health and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) have all produced their own documents outlining the crisis and offering recommendations on how to address it.

Celebrities brought the message home to a wide audience. Jamie Oliver, the TV chef, captured the nation’s imagination in his attempt to transform school meals. For parents, however, the task of preventing their children from becoming obese remains tough. Many were themselves brought up on a poor diet and never learnt to cook properly.

Connor’s mother, Nicola McKeown, admits she finds it difficult to ensure her son eats healthily.

“I need some support so that I can help Connor, because I am working blind,” she said. “Yes, I know what are the right and the wrong foods to eat, the fattening and nonfattening foods, but Connor doesn’t like fruit or vegetables and he won’t touch salads.

“We have only just got Connor off processed foods such as sausages and burgers and to start eating meat and poultry, but it is very difficult because we are limited to what he likes.

“He likes chips and mashed potatoes and all the wrong foods. I am trying to introduce healthier foods to his diet but he refuses to eat 90% of them.”

WHERE responsibility lies and whether the state should intervene is a delicate area. But the signs are that the authorities are growing more inclined to take action.

Last month two brothers in Cambridgeshire were convicted of causing unnecessary suffering by letting their dog become obese. The labrador, Rusty, grew to 11 stone, more than double the weight he should have been, and could hardly stand.

The brothers were given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £250 each towards the cost of the prosecution by the RSPCA, which had taken the dog into its care.

Children are not dogs, but the incident left many health experts asking whether the parents of obese children should face similar sanctions.

Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, a charity dealing with obesity, said: “Parents should be held to account. Allowing such obesity is child abuse. We wouldn’t treat a dog this way.”

Dr Tom Solomon, a doctor at Royal Liverpool University hospital with an interest in obesity, said: “The state intervenes with schooling. Parents who do not send their children to school are prosecuted eventually. To be badly educated is not dangerous, but we are making our children diabetic, and even killing our children by our feeding habits.”

But others insist taking obese children into care because parents fail to make them lose weight can never be justified.

Ian Johnston, director of the British Association of Social Workers, says that before child protection measures are taken there would need to be convincing evidence that the parents were to blame.

“We are dealing, at times, with quite difficult situations such as parents who are not coping with their kids and kids who are making nocturnal trips to the fridge to help themselves,” he said.

“Obesity can often be linked to poverty. In the case of obese children, social workers would intervene in the same way as if someone was undernourished, but it would depend on robust medical evidence to justify such action.”

The health risks faced by obese children are undeniable. According to the report on childhood obesity by the health select committee, obesity will soon surpass smoking as the greatest cause of premature loss of life. Obese children run a high risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, kidney failure and arthritis. The committee of MPs estimated that the cost of treating overweight and obese patients is at least £7 billion a year.

The Department of Health has recognised the need for children to form healthy habits from birth and has announced “supernannies” to give intensive help to vulnerable women during pregnancy and after childbirth.

The Food Standards Agency is at war with some supermarkets and food manufacturers over placing clear labelling detailing levels of fat, sugar and salt content on packaging.

Last week Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, published rules banning adverts for food and drink high in fat, salt, and sugar from programmes aimed at children.

But all these initiatives come too late for Connor and thousands of other children who are already obese. As his mother and grandmother prepare for Tuesday’s child protection conference, they are reflecting on who is to blame for Connor’s obesity, and fearful of the outcome.

Connor’s grandmother, Barbara Bake, admits that her daughter could have done more to prevent him from piling on the pounds, but says her ability to refuse his constant demands for food was hindered by the depression she has suffered.

Bake says her daughter used to buy carry-out meals twice a week but has cut down recently and made other improvements to Connor’s diet. Bake says she has thrown out her daughter’s deep fat fryer and bought hera steamer.

Bake also claims the National Health Service has let Connor down. She would like Connor to be seen by the region’s leading paediatrician and for tests to establish whether a food intolerance or hormonal problems have contributed to her grandson’s size.

She said: “I have been asking for Connor to have an appointment with the leading child obesity specialist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. I want him to have body scans, diabetes tests, food allergy tests and thyroid tests.”

The NHS, however, says Connor’s mother has failed to address her son’s obesity by missing numerous appointments with health workers.

THIS weekend Connor’s mother was nervous about what will happen at Tuesday’s hearing.

She cannot bear the thought of Connor being taken into care, and is desperately hoping that the panel will be able to come up with a solution to her son’s weight.

McKeown said: “I am very anxious because I have never been through this before. I do not know what I am walking into. If Connor gets taken into care that is the worst scenario there could be.

“Hopefully, we will be able to come up with a good plan and he might just be put on the at-risk register. That wouldn’t be so bad because there would be help at the end of it.

“I just couldn’t imagine what it would be like if the outcome was worse than that.”

Connor’s story will be told in Tonight with Trevor McDonald, tomorrow at 8pm on ITV1

What he eats

Connor's diet has improved but until recently he was eating:

- Coco Pops for breakfast

- 11am snack of toast and turkey ham

- Processed food including sausages and burgers

- Lots of deep-fried food including chips

- Two carry-out meals a week

- Dinners with four Yorkshire puddings

- Four packets of Walkers crisps a day

- Biscuits and other snacks every 20 minutes

- Connor's mum says he refuses to eat fruit and vegetables and will not go near salad


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1434671.ece

[jande2211]

Sorry to be stupid, but what's 14 stone?

[Demi]

Sorry to be stupid, but what's 14 stone?
Sorry, should have explained previously that a stone is an English imperial measurement for weight. 14lbs = 1 stone, so 14 stone is 196lbs.

[ojoj]

If he was being battered or abused he'd be taken into care, whats the difference physically and emotionally???

.... and how can a mother allow her child to eat that much cr*p in one day???? Stick a salad infront of him, if wont eat it then tough, go without. He'll eat it if he gets hungry enough

Jo

[bsheets]

Jo, when I was about 8 or 9 I used to go to school with a girl who was given jelly crystals straight out of the box as part of her lunch. I used to envy her, of course, because I was stuck with a brown bread ham and salad sandwich ... lol

She's absolutely huge now, was obese back then too. It's amazing the kind of denial parents have that they offload onto their kids.......

e

[potatofree]

All I have to say is ...

AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

[Lisa N]

Ummm...yeah...what she said. ^^^^

[unitydkn]

my 8 YO is getting chubby (85lb) and we have started to change his diet, he loves meat and fat, salad,raw broccoli,celery,cheese and things that are healthy....but he would prefer mashed potato,mac and cheese,candy,chips,fri's,candy,grapes,ice cream, pancakes..... I have convinced his father that I am not having these things in my house anymore, it is not ok to have dad eat them and tell son your to big for you to eat them... it sets them up for ED's... it is not good for anyone, there for no one eats them anymore... not my skinny boy(takes after dad) not dad or 5oy,or me... that food is not being bought.... they will eat what we have or go hungry

[Angeline]

Exactly. Most kids would prefer mac n' cheese, hot dogs, mashed potatoes, chips ect ect over better food. Heck many adults would too. But that's what parenting is all about they don't get to dictate the menu expect for the occasional special occasion.

[kneebrace]

But that's what parenting is all about they don't get to dictate the menu expect for the occasional special occasion.

My parents never bought (or were persuaded to by for Special Occasions) soda. I'm not convinced that even special occasions should make crap food accessible. I never wanted to drink soda even when I could afford to buy my own. Why make that kind of food desirable. It's like saying that prohibiting alcohol to children (even in 'moderate' amounts, or to 'special occasions') is going to make kids more likely to become alcoholics.

[Snow_White]

My parents made sure that we ate healthfully, but that it was still food we'd enjoy. I maintained a healthy slim body until I got out of high school and started eating things that I hadn't before, at least not in any major quantity.

[Demi]

For anyone in the UK, you can watch the programme tonight:

Tonight with Trevor McDonald
Tonight: 15 stone at Eight Years Old
3.13, Fri Feb 23 2007


As Britain's childhood obesity epidemic grows, are more drastic measures needed to safeguard overweight kids' health?

We meet 15 stone eight-year-old Connor McCreaddie whose family fear he will be taken into care unless he loses weight.

Watch the ITV1 show on Monday, February 26 at 8pm.

http://www.itv.com/news/tonight.html

[CindySue48]

I'm not convinced that even special occasions should make crap food accessible.If you mean highly processed food, I agree. But I don't think an occasional piece of home-made pie or cake or ice cream is all that bad. Growing up in the 50s we had home made desserts on a fairly regular basis. We weren't allowed to "pig out", nor did we have it every night. But I don't think that damaged me at all.

[ojoj]

As I'm in the UK, I saw the programme on TV last night about this young lad - the mother seems to have "issues" and feels the doctors should be doing more. I feel that the poor boy is doomed in more ways than just his weight. The polite and policical correct way of putting his home environment would be to say he comes from a totally dysfunctional family!!!!!

What do I think should happen??? Get him out of there asap!!

Jo

[Demi]

As I'm in the UK, I saw the programme on TV last night about this young lad - the mother seems to have "issues" and feels the doctors should be doing more. I feel that the poor boy is doomed in more ways than just his weight. The polite and policical correct way of putting his home environment would be to say he comes from a totally dysfunctional family!!!!!

What do I think should happen??? Get him out of there asap!!

Jo
My thoughts exactly, having also watched the programme.

[ReginaW]

Commentary from the Times Online UK

One fat kid versus a lean, mean army of meddlers (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/mick_hume/article1444033.ece)

There is a morbid obsession with overweight kids, marked by overblown warnings about child obesity time bombs

Mick Hume: Thunderer

The crusaders running the “war on obesity” are toying with a new weapon: interning children without trial. Eight-year-old Connor McCreaddie weighs 89kg - about 14st. Today his mother and grandmother are due to face a child protection conference in North Tyneside, which will decide whether Connor should be placed on the at-risk register, or even placed in care, for being too fat.

Time was when fat kids only had to fear the school bully. Now they and their parents risk being bullied by a gang of authorities and experts. Complaining that “People pick on us ’cos of my weight”, Connor says he is “sick of the nutters always shouting at us”. To those picking on his family he can now add two specialist obesity nurses, a consultant paediatrician, two social workers and a police officer, who will all be at the conference. Oh, and Sir Trevor McDonald, whose Tonight with . . . ITV programme featured him last night.

It is hard to speculate about the causes of obesity in an individual case (although we might note that while Connor is overweight, he is also reportedly 5ft tall with size eight feet — hardly the average eight-year-old). But we can say that none of these antiobesity interventions has been shown to be effective, from the fat camps to care orders pioneered in America. A “strict regime” of diet and exercise may have helped Connor to lose 9kg in two months. The longer-term prospects of success remain slim. What boys like him could do with is a life, not a “regime”.

Indeed, coercive interventions are worse than useless. They can do real harm to those on the receiving end. Connor’s frightened mum said that the prospect of him being taken into care would “be the death of me”.

That there can even be serious discussion about removing children from loving families reflects some fatheaded prejudices. There is a morbid obsession with overweight kids, marked by overblown warnings about child obesity time bombs and epidemics. And there is a bitter prejudice against working-class parents — those crisp-wielding “f***ing a***holes, tossers, idiots” as St Jamie Oliver branded them last year — while Ken Livingstone, the Miserabilist of London, decreed that mothers passing junk food to hungry schoolchildren should be arrested.

The McCreaddie case smacks of the same contempt. A consultant paediatrician told the Tonight show that the family would “actually love him to death, literally” and that overfeeding him was “a form of child abuse”. (Yeah, obese and abuse almost sound the same!) Imagine how much better off he would be in the love-free environment of the at-risk register or care home . . .

Connor’s mother pleads that she has cut down on takeaways. It would be far healthier for all concerned if we threw out any notion of taking away her son.

[Demi]

From the online Daily Telegraph, Speakers Corner, UK:

Should obese children be taken into care?

A boy of eight who weighs 14 stone (196 pounds or 89 kilograms) could be taken into care in a landmark step to tackle childhood obesity.

Connor McCreaddie, who is more than three times the normal weight for his age, has missed weeks of classes and faces long-term health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.

According to Connor's mother, 35-year-old Nicola McKeown, the boy refuses to eat healthy food and is constantly hungry. "I try to be strict with him and limit what he eats but some days I just think, 'my God, you have had so much today' ,” she said, adding:

"Connor had a mouthful of apple once and he didn't like it."

A child protection panel made up of obesity nurses, a consultant paediatrician, the deputy headmaster of his school North Tyneside, a police officer and two social workers will decide how to handle his case, with one option placing him in care.

What do you think should be done to help Connor and children like him? Is it humane or harmful to place extremely obese children in care homes?

Should the state compel parents to do their best to raise healthy children? If so, how?

To post a comment. click here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=TJIUWUZOMC2J1QFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?view=BLOGDETAIL&grid=F11&blog=yourview&xml=/news/2007/02/26/ublview26c.xml

Some very interesting comments there already.

[ReginaW]

Some very interesting comments there already.

They do run the gamut!

With no experience to have perspective (I was on the other extreme as a child - too thin) I have to wonder if those agreeing this child should be removed from his home....if they were overweight as children, would they have agreed it would have been better if they'd been removed from their home when they were a child so the state could manage their diet in a foster home?

[potatofree]

I don't know what "care homes" are like over there, but our foster care system is too overloaded with children from far more dangerous situations, and there aren't enough spots available for them when their lives are in IMMEDIATE danger. It seems to me "get him out of there" would be useless unless the UK has the infrastructure in place to take on the extra load.

[ojoj]

I think you had to see the programme to understand the way this child and his family lived. There didnt seem to be any love, or even communication in the house atall, so i dont think "loving him to death" came into it. It was more giving him food "to keep him quiet".

Only his grandmother who says she goes round to his house most mornings to get him up for school seemed to acknowledge his presence! His mother stays in bed because she suffers with severe depression. During the whole of the documentary, she chain smoked and seemed to be in a daze.

Actually it was quite shocking. I dont know how this family functions at all. without the grandmother I dont think they would ever get out of bed - ever!!!

Jo

[Angeline]

Sounds like your average highly dysfunctional family. It's the unfortunate lot of many children. They grow up neglected and ignored for the most part. The only difference here is that the result of this neglect is highly visible.

I'm not making light of this and saying abuse or neglect should be ignored. All I am saying is, ponder the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of children like him in similar circumstances and the only difference here is that the neglect is there for all to see, as opposed to being inside and invisible.

[Dodger]

I think you had to see the programme to understand the way this child and his family lived. There didnt seem to be any love, or even communication in the house atall, so i dont think "loving him to death" came into it. It was more giving him food "to keep him quiet".

Only his grandmother who says she goes round to his house most mornings to get him up for school seemed to acknowledge his presence! His mother stays in bed because she suffers with severe depression. During the whole of the documentary, she chain smoked and seemed to be in a daze.

Actually it was quite shocking. I dont know how this family functions at all. without the grandmother I dont think they would ever get out of bed - ever!!!

JoThe solution should be to get the mother help for her depression. Removing her child because the mother has a treatable disease doesn't seem to be a rational thing to do.

[Demi]

This has just been posted on the BBC News website:

Overweight boy stays with mother

Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 17:33 GMT

Obese boy Connor McCreaddie has been allowed by North Tyneside social services to stay with his mother.

Health experts met to decide the future of the eight-year-old who weighs more than 14 stone (96lbs/89kg).

Connor, from Wallsend, North Tyneside, who lost some weight, but still prefers processed food to fruit and vegetables, could have been taken into care.

His mother, Nicola McKeown, had been called to a child protection conference with the local authority.

A statement issued on behalf of the council's Local Safeguarding Children Board said it had a "useful discussion" with all agencies and the family concerned.

It continued: "The Local Safeguarding Children Board was able to confirm that its hope and ambition is to enable this child to remain with his family.

"In order to move this matter forward we have made a formal agreement with the family to safeguard and promote the child's welfare."



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6402113.stm

I'm sure a lot more on the subject will be posted later.

[ojoj]

The solution should be to get the mother help for her depression. Removing her child because the mother has a treatable disease doesn't seem to be a rational thing to do.



I'm not sure though if she was suffering from "clinical" depression, extreme low self esteem, mental health issues or just very low intelligence. Since social services are obviously involved, maybe they have gone own this route already. A good point, but in the meantime???????

[foxgluvs]

It's not a rational thing to do, but if he doesn't get taken out of that situation for a while, and the mother does not get re-educated in how to look after her son, then he'll be dead in a few years anyway. His heart can;'t possibly hang in there for too much longer at that weight. He is in the danger zones health wise.

I felt terribly sorry for him when I his mother (cooking most things in a frying pan) was serving up a HUGE dinner which I would struggle to eat. She stated "I try to give him healthy things, but he only likes fried food, like chips, he does eat healthy things sometimes, like mashed potato - but he won't eat boiled potatoes".......

It's like WHAT IS IT YOU DON'T GET?! You feed him mashed potato in massive amounts and thinks that's healthy??...well, I'm speachless.

[Lisa N]

Sounds like your average highly dysfunctional family. It's the unfortunate lot of many children. They grow up neglected and ignored for the most part. The only difference here is that the result of this neglect is highly visible.

I'm not making light of this and saying abuse or neglect should be ignored. All I am saying is, ponder the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of children like him in similar circumstances and the only difference here is that the neglect is there for all to see, as opposed to being inside and invisible.

Angeline, I agree. I admit that the idea of the state stepping in and removing the child in this case makes me distinctly uncomfortable. Once they start down this path, where is the line going to be drawn? Okay, so they reason that the child's weight represents an immediate danger to him. What medical conditions, other than obesity, does this child have? What's the difference between an overweight child and one whose parents refuse immunizations because of religious reasons or personal ones? How about a child that is very thin? What about parents who refuse blood transfusions for their child on religious grounds? How many takeout meals a week constitutes neglect?
Does feeding your kids junk food represent abuse all the time or only when it visibly causes a problem? How many desserts a week is abusive?
Who gets to decide what constitutes a healthy diet?
Who is to say that putting this child on a low fat, low calorie diet isn't abuse? After all, the kid is likely to suffer a considerable amount of hunger....but that would be a good kind of suffering, right? ;)

Here's a twist that might hit closer to home for some of us. What if it was one of your children and you were trying a low carb plan to reduce weight but the state decided that was clearly not healthy and that the child needed to be on a low cal, low fat diet because...everyone ;) knows that low carb is unhealthy, right? And if you didn't do things, 'their' way, you would be found guilty of neglect.

[ojoj]

The "authorities" desided yesterday to leave this young lad with his family and to try to support them. I hope it works out, not just for his obesity problem, but also to get the family functioning and able to live a happy and productive life.

It would be interesting if they were to follow this story up in a few months time

Jo

[CindySue48]

The "authorities" desided yesterday to leave this young lad with his family and to try to support them. I hope it works out, not just for his obesity problem, but also to get the family functioning and able to live a happy and productive life.

It would be interesting if they were to follow this story up in a few months time

JoFrom articles I've read the services have been offered in the past. Maybe now that mom realises she just may look her kid she'll accept them.

I've also read that mom suffers with depression....maybe helping her with that would be a good start.

At this point I'm glad they didn't remove the child. But, if they find that mom is sabotaging, then they will have no choice.

Has anyone heard anything about dad?

[ojoj]

No mention of dad, he has an older sister with a different surname which suggests mum has had two men in her life?? (BTW, thats not a critism, my children have different fathers too) It would be interesting to see if this lads dad was a "big" man, could some of his problem be genetic??

As for mums depression, well, thats an illness that covers so many issues. Its not always easily treatable and is not always condusive to raising happy, healthy kids.

But hopefully they'll get through this. They're in the medias gaze now, so hopefully they'll get all the support going!!!

Jo

[CindySue48]

No mention of dad, he has an older sister with a different surname which suggests mum has had two men in her life?? (BTW, thats not a critism, my children have different fathers too) It would be interesting to see if this lads dad was a "big" man, could some of his problem be genetic??I've wondered about genetics too. While I'm not saying he's not obese, he also appears to be pretty talll for his age? Maybe it's just the pics I've seen, but he appears tall.

As for mums depression, well, thats an illness that covers so many issues. Its not always easily treatable and is not always condusive to raising happy, healthy kids.I agree, but it's a start. No mention of her being treated, so to me that indicates she probably isn't. If she is being treated, it's apparently not effective.

[Lisa N]

I've wondered about genetics too. While I'm not saying he's not obese, he also appears to be pretty talll for his age? Maybe it's just the pics I've seen, but he appears tall.

The article stated somewhere that the boy is 5 feet tall, which is pretty tall for an 8 year old. My oldest dd is 12 and only just passed 5 feet tall.