wondering what everyone else thinks

Connor McCreaddie, the obese eight-year-old who weighs 14 stone, has been allowed to stay with his mother after social workers considered taking him into care.

Tyneside social services met to discuss his progress in losing weight and consider whether his obesity amounted to child abuse.

Health workers and a dietician have been helping the family after his mother, Nicola McKeown, 35, went to professionals for assistance.

Connor, who is so overweight he can hardly walk, has lost 1 stone 7lb since beginning a diet and exercise regime two months ago and now officials have decided the youngster is better off with his mother.

After the North Tyneside Council meeting, which Connor and his mother attended, the Local Safeguarding Children Board said: "We have had a useful discussion today during which all agencies and the family confirmed that the priority in this matter is the eight-year-old boy."

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

Before the ruling his mother said: "Taking him away from his family when he needs them to help him would be, I think, disastrous for Connor. I think it would make him worse."

I don't know UK weights, but I can see he's overweight. I'm for leaving him with his family if they're willing to do what's necessary, even if he resists. I saw a mother on Dr. Phil with a young son who was obese, and she came back and thought it was great that, in all that time, he'd lost a half a pound! She claimed his weight was due to medical problems that the doctors just hadn't discovered yet (because the doctors said there was no medical problem). Since those shows, the father got custody, and the boy immediately began losing weight and is a normal weight now. He can run and he runs up and down steps every day for exercise. His favorite food is broccoli.

So, as I said, if the family is willing to do what's necessary, great. If not, get the child into a healthy environment.

I'd suggest that he stays with his family so long as they are willing and able to help him to lose the weight that he needs to....

I cannot believe social services even considered taking him into care when there are so many other vunrable children that are in need of their protection. I think someone in social services was just going for brownie points.

I believe that his family must come forward and fight the problem. Even if he weren't obese, he would still be a huge kid. He is 5 feet tall at age 8. Diet and exercise is primarily what it takes.

If he has lost 20 lbs. on his diet he is headed in the right direction. If he is doing that under his mother's supervision, all the better. Keep him with his family.

Sometimes I think government types carry things too far. There is discussion of anti-spanking legislation here in California. Although I never really had to spank my daughter, I never equated a reasonable spank on the behind with beating a child.

I heard about this story on my local news channel and the boy weighs 218 pounds.

I think that the entire family needs to be educated on proper nutrition, boundary setting, parenting classes, and family therapy...as well as therapy for the child. Along with regular visits from a social worker and visits to a dietition that are manditory.

(((((((PILATUS)))))))

my thoughts entirely pilatus. education being the key word. maybe an interest where he needs to get outside. and maybe take his computer off him at times.

hope his exercise routine and eating habits change and he succeeds. children are so cruel, i felt sad when i saw that story

jin xx

i think its sad...very very sad.

Yeah - it is sad and I too feel that "IF" the family can help him then he should stay - but "IF" they continue on with adding to his weight gain then some one needs to step in and take control.

I also saw a TV show about a young girl (7-10 yrs old) who's weight was around 300 lbs and she could not even walk, she had stopped going to school due to her weight and now she must crawl or bounces to get around the house...................... Sad so Sad.

LoVe,
Rhapsody -

I don't understand what parents are thinking. My mother taught me that it is easier to take off 2 or 3 lbs when the scale moves up than to let the problem get bad and face major dieting. My mother has a HS education, and I grew up long before all the knowledge we now have about the relation between weight and heart disease, diabetes, and so many other health problems. If you are sitting on your bum watching TV as you gain weight, you are exposed to information that clearly tells you that eating + lack of exercise = obesity. This is not rocket science.

As for allowing the child to stay with the parent, the child got fat in the home environment, therefore, there should be a limited amount of time for signs of a turn-around, say one month. This child's life is at stake, every bit as much as a child who is being beaten.

I was reading some of the back story and the mother allowed a film crew to come in so he was on TV feeding him really bad stuff is where/when the health people decided to get involved. Apparently when he was 2 he was too heavy for her to lift anymore. He was 218 pounds, just a tad too heavy for 8, even if he is 5 feet tall? His mother had a really winning/healthy comment, "He was just born hungry." I don't quite get how mothers feed their kids whatever the kids want, especially at 8. Apparently he has french fries with everything.

I've seen mothers with attitude problems who think they're great mothers who become very defensive and say, "When my child is hungry, I'm going to give him something to eat. I'm not going to let my child go hungry." They have damaged their child's natural ability to eat a certain amount, feel satisfied, and stop.

I was raised by parents who fed me sugar, and lots of it. I had soda for breakfast, with my meals, whenever. My brother used to bring us several cases of Pepsi for Christmas; I don't know if that was because I drank so much, or just in general for the family. He didn't live with us, and was an adult, so it wasn't for him. I am overweight and can't seem to get control of my sugar, and I'm truly scared of developing health problems. I'm out of shape and feel awful about my body.

I understand it's hard to say no to your child, and it seems mothers have a bigger problem with this than fathers. Plus, fathers aren't always in the picture. But you have to. Mothers on the talk shows say, "I feel guilty." Too bad. You'll get over it. When your child grows up healthy, you'll be glad you did it. Your guilt is not an excuse to harm your child, and yes, you're doing just that when you feed your child the wrong things, the wrong amounts, and don't make them exercise.

Spoiling your child--whether we're talking about food, toys, or anything else s/he desires--is not ok. That doesn't mean you can't treat your child now and then, but not too often. Children appreciate things more when they have to earn them.

Your child might cry, your child might throw a tantrum, s/he may kick and scream. Eventually, s/he'll stop and realize things will not go his/her way all the time. That's life.

Too many parents say their kids will outgrow it, will lose the weight later, or are perfectly fine (they claim the doctor even says so!). Maybe they're fine now, but later, they may not be. I forget the statistics, but an overweight child is very likely to become an overweight adult.

Maven, thank you for sharing your story. This is powerful evidence for why intervention.

Thank you. I really think it's important for parents to teach their kids to be healthy, especially when big corporations and big money now advertise to kids, because they know kids can guilt their parents into buying these harmful products. We had food icons when we were young, but it's worse now. Look at almost any sugary or fattening product when you go into the grocery store. Products not only have icons created for that food, they use popular cartoon characters to influence your kid into wanting that item. Kids recognize the character, love the character, and want to be like the character. That character loves Life cereal? The kid wants to eat Life cereal!

A cereal that's been around for years, or a new cereal (that's really just the same basic type of cereal that's already out there--like the kind with mini marshmallows in fun shapes), will have Scooby-Doo, Spiderman, or some other loved character. Don't get me wrong--I love Scooby-Doo and Garfield, among others! I'm just pointing out the influence they have on your kids to sell products.

You can put two boxes of the same cereal in front of your kid, one with a regular box design, and the other with Superman or Dora the Explorer on the box, and chances are, the kid will go for the cartooned box. They did an experiment like this on 20/20 or one of those shows. They put two cupcakes in front of a boy, I think one had a generic character or none at all, and the other with Spiderman. Kid chose Spiderman. A girl got to choose from two bananas: One was plain, the other had pretty stickers of fave characters. She chose the one with the stickers.

And, don't get me wrong: They put these characters on healthy food, too. Just today, I saw Scooby-Doo bottled water! Bottled water isn't really any better than filtered tap water (and that's what much of it really is), but the point is, you could get a your Scooby-Doo-loving kid to drink the water, and that would be better than soda. Still, I believe parents advertisers shouldn't be "selling" to kids. That just seems wrong to me.

This is shocking!

My son weighted 276 at 15. He was a OCEater. We talked to him. The school talked to him. The DRS talked to him. We would hide food. He would eat when we went to bed.
He had colic when he was a baby. Ate and ate. Around 2 he started to be heavy. He also had PDD.
In 06 he had his appendics out. In the hospital he was put in a over sized bed and wheel chair.
When he came home and till this day, he has been on a diet and goes to the gym every day. Down to 215, He is 6"1.
He is like a new person. By the way the PDD is gone.
He by all means is a mircle! "Only took 5 months for the weight to go"
I hope that boy recieves a mircle too.

it's called "child abuse" in my book.

obesity is a huge health problem , especially here in the US. it causes a multitude of other life-threatening health problems and poses a huge cost for the medical system..especially for patients who use the ERs as a private medical clinic.

to allow a child to eat whatever they want is abusing the child. sugar and fat are the worst things that children can have access to i grew up very poor and sweets were very rare. i realize now that my parents did the right thing by heaping on the vegetables..i was probably one of the few kids who "dug" cooked turnips. but my mother knew how to make vegetables taste great.

it pains me to think of the little boy that is imprisoned in that body and can't play and do the normal kid activities that other children taken for granted. the little boy that lives next door is overweight and when he tries to play basketball with the really active children, he ends up throwing himself down to the ground and crying.....he can't manuever around the other kids and he gets angry and hurt. (and he has a multitude of behavior problems anyway)

the DHS in New Mexico took a little girl from her parents, for a brief period, and returned her after the parents went to classes at the local hospital to learn how to feed her and what NOT to let her eat. in essence, they had to "earn" back the right to have the child in their home. she's now at a healthy weight. it made national news but the social agency stuck to their guns.

I completely agree with Fayerody. Everyone needs some sugar and fat in their diet, but our society has made these far too common, and they can come from healthier sources than they usually do. And, while I don't think it's okay for anyone--child or adult--to tease others for being overweight, the fact is, they will, and parents should protect their children. Children's self-esteem is important, too. Of course, I think all parents should teach their children to be nice to "different" children, let alone all in general, and not to join in the pack when they are mean. Granted, what a child does in front of his parents and what he does when he's not in their sight, can be two different things. That's why I believe, if you're told your child is being a bully, you should take it seriously. That doesn't mean automatically accuse your child of being guilty, but question him about it and warn him that you'll be checking up on him, even when he thinks you're not around, for a while. You want to make sure that behavior isn't happening.

I'm sure every single person here has known someone who's suffered for being overweight. It's a shame that we couldn't do anything for those who were that way as a result of their parents' starting them out that way. Yes, it's their (our) responsibility to make changes when they (we) become adults, but it's a whole lot harder by then, and they (we) never should have had to deal with this problem to start with. Life has enough problems.

As long as there is no Abuse in the home... he should stay with strict guidelines for his mother to follow about diet and nutrition.