[Pheddytrourry]

Saw this on MSNBC, CNN and Fox news at lunch..
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/0...ren/?hpt=he_c2
Basically they are proposing the CPS have the authority to take a kid from a family who is clinically obese..

What do you all think about this?

[VEGLAS - SPB]

Yeah, I'm sure the government can do a better job. I'm betting there will be a long line to adopt these kids. Heck, with the CPS record in most states, the kids will die from some other unnatural cause anyway.

There is a problem, but turning control over to a government agency that always claims they are overworked (no matter the city/state) is not the solution. Foster families aren't going to be any better than the natural parents. Find a solution that doesn't involve the government raising children.

[metrocartockasur]

That's going a little overboard. If anything, make the kids and the parents go to a nutrition class or something and learn how to eat and live better. But taking the kids away? Meanwhile you have parents killing their children, actually abusing them or children getting kidnapped and not being found but the government wants to take away a person's kid because they think they are fat. There are some people considered "obese" that one might wonder how.

Also skinny people aren't always the healthiest people in the world either. Just because someone appears skinny on the outside does not mean that inside they aren't fat or unhealthy. So are they going to take away a teenager or child who is anorexic or bulimic and the parents don't know?

How about the government fix the country and let parents take care of their children.

[pavlik]

Smart people with a dumb idea.

What about the harm to the child of taking them away from their parents??? Also, not everything is the parents fault....I'm sorry. This might fix the obesity problem...but how many dozens of other problems will it cause?

Also, can someone please explain this bit to me:

An estimated 17% of children in the U.S. are considered to be obese – which is defined as a child having a body mass index or BMI that is equal to or greater than the 95th percentile for their age and gender. How can 17% of the children be n the 95th percentile...isn't a percentile, by definition a percentage of the population? And why would a healthy BMI depend on what everyone else's BMI is? i.e. If the entire population is and average of 50 lbs overweight...then you couldn't you be unhealthy but only be in the 50th percentile?

[career-builder]

The BMI is a load of bullshit anyway! Yes America is fat but taking the kids away from the parents is not the answer. I will agree that a lot of parents can do a hellava lot better job raising their kids but taking them away, like someone else said, will cause more problems than it solves.

[BigMovies]

So if I fatten my kids up someone else will take care of them....

Yeah this is overkill. Though Im sure there are points where parents cant control the eating of someone 5 times the width of them.