Parent's Role in Preventing Child Obesity
Parent’s Role in Preventing Child Obesity
Stacey Rainwater
October 4, 2010
Parent’s Role in Preventing Child Obesity
Sadly, child obesity has become one of the major health problems world wide. As I began my research, there was no doubt in my mind that proving the parent’s lack of taking responsibility for the health of their children was going to be an easy point to prove. As I dug deeper and deeper, I found that I was quite wrong, and that it is unfair to place blame on the parents alone when there are so many other factors that have to be considered first.
There have been actual cases, that will be mentioned later in this paper, where parents have been charged with felony charges and faced up to 15 years behind bars before authorities even considered the possibilities that there could be health issues within the individual that suffers from obesity that are beyond the control of the parents or the child. (Dolgoff 2010). Is breaking up a family, or parents being sentenced to prison the answer to solving the growing problem of child obesity? I think not. March 23-A South Carolina woman was charged with 2 felony charges of neglect as her 14 year old reached an outrageous weight of 555lbs. (Dolgoff 2010). My first initial response to that was to immediately blame the mother and father allowing this to happen. Apparently, it was the same initial thought of authorities as well. Who’s to say that this 14 year old did not have other health issues leading to being obese? Where do we draw the line when it comes to charging the parents for neglect when there could actually be an unknown genetic abnormality within an individual? Some individuals are deficient (or resistant to) the effects of a protein called leptin. Leptin is what tells our brain that we are full and no longer need to eat. (Dolgoff 2010). It has been shown in studies with mice that when having such deficiency, it is possible to never have the feeling of “being full” and always
Stacey Rainwater
October 4, 2010
Parent’s Role in Preventing Child Obesity
Sadly, child obesity has become one of the major health problems world wide. As I began my research, there was no doubt in my mind that proving the parent’s lack of taking responsibility for the health of their children was going to be an easy point to prove. As I dug deeper and deeper, I found that I was quite wrong, and that it is unfair to place blame on the parents alone when there are so many other factors that have to be considered first.
There have been actual cases, that will be mentioned later in this paper, where parents have been charged with felony charges and faced up to 15 years behind bars before authorities even considered the possibilities that there could be health issues within the individual that suffers from obesity that are beyond the control of the parents or the child. (Dolgoff 2010). Is breaking up a family, or parents being sentenced to prison the answer to solving the growing problem of child obesity? I think not. March 23-A South Carolina woman was charged with 2 felony charges of neglect as her 14 year old reached an outrageous weight of 555lbs. (Dolgoff 2010). My first initial response to that was to immediately blame the mother and father allowing this to happen. Apparently, it was the same initial thought of authorities as well. Who’s to say that this 14 year old did not have other health issues leading to being obese? Where do we draw the line when it comes to charging the parents for neglect when there could actually be an unknown genetic abnormality within an individual? Some individuals are deficient (or resistant to) the effects of a protein called leptin. Leptin is what tells our brain that we are full and no longer need to eat. (Dolgoff 2010). It has been shown in studies with mice that when having such deficiency, it is possible to never have the feeling of “being full” and always
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