Not sure if anyone saw the programme about the 8 year old boy who weighed 15 stone? There has been great discussion about whether the child should be taken from his mother, as she hasn't looked after him properly. Obviously it’s a hard one. It might not be as clear as if somebody hit a child but long term letting your child get this big could have an incredibly bad effect. What do the rebels think?
This is not Milgod

I saw the programme and really felt for the family, although they're cdertainly not helping the child by giving in to him so easily. He's missing school as his mother has depression (apparentky as a result of her son's condition) and she can't stick with any regime she tries to impose on him. The grandmother loves him so much she clearly just wants to spoil him, as grandparents often do. the only one with any sense in the household was the daughter who explained why he became so fat in the first place and that he was happy getting his own way in the household.
I'm glad that the social services haven't placed him into care, but I really do hope that they keep a very close eye on the family and give them practical help and advice in getting Connor healthy again, and keeping him that way.

I feel quite strongly about this issue as when I worked as a school teacher you often seen children who were picked on A LOT because of their size and I seen first hand how hurtful the whole experience can be for them.

Now i know that it might be extreme to take the child off of his parnets but this is an extreme case he is morbidly obese and has placed his life in extreme danger so maybe these draconian measures are what is needed in order to show parents that their childs diet is part of their parental duties. I know that when i was young i was always fed my greens, various fruits, etc and encouraged to take up as many sports as possible in order to stay active, well either that or stay out of me mums way.

This child obviously does little or no exercise, is eating all the wrong food & is teased that badly at school that he has a poor attendence record which will only lead to the stagnation of his educational progress. This is down to his parents and not himself as he is a product of his upbringing and should eh have ate better when younger there is no doubt in my mind that this would have never happened eg the mum says how she would give him healthy food only for him to whine at her until he got what he wanted well i can see a fairly simple solution their pettle don't fecking give in him to over this.

I see another parent has come out today and voiced her concern for her 9 year old 14 stone daughter no shit she should be concerned but maybe this should all have strarted sometime ago before she allowed things to spiral out of control.

This problem is likely to rise in the future and maybe drastic acction is what is needed to somehow try and avoid drastic consequences of the obesity problem.

I completely understand what you're saying and agree with most of it. Part of me thinks that taking him into care would be a good thing, but for how long? The mother needs practical help in feeding her family healthy nutritious meals and she should be getting out an exercising with him. The has been cutting down his food portions since Christmas and he's managed to lose 1.5 stones since then so she's onviously heading in the right direction. I just think that she needs help herself as she doesn't have the inner strength to keep fighting his demands for food.
He has trampoline which he plays on but that's about all the exercise he seems to get right now as he struggles to walk to school. His school need to be helping out with the bullying issue and liasing with the SS to make sure his attendance is good.
Taking him into care will only hurt the family and child further IMO.

what amazes me about this issue is where the hell are the health visitors for these children. My kids have all been under the care of a health visitor until they were 5 years old, and they're only signed off if they're fit and healthy. I was aksed what I fed them and they were regularly weighed and measured. Cerys is getting the same care, so why have these kids been allowed to get this overweight without health professionals stepping in?

The odd thing about it is his tattooed mother showing him stripped to anyone with a camera. There can't be anyone in the country who hasn't seen the poor fat little git.

Three fried meals a day, and a snack ever 20 minutes eh. It's yet another case of too many inadequates having too many kids.

I never knew that ye had a system like that in the UK and am unsure as to whether we have such safety precautions here in Ireland but it seems to be that the people who signed of on him every year or so should be placed under investigation at work as they are obviously not doing their job and safegaurding what is in the childs best interests ie to be a healthy weight.

I can understand that you feel that the child should be left with his mother both I am of course coming from a point of view of not being a parent myself so don't understand the effect that it might have on the parents to lose their child, but what i would hope it would do is shock them into actyion when is returned to them as I am sure he would in due time.

He's not being taken into care by the way. Nor should he.

His mother just needs a kick up the arse, and told to stop blaming the doctors or anyone else.

Tbh I don't think the mother really knows what's going on in her own house half the time. Her own mother seems to be doing to lion's share.
I wouldn't let anyone see my kids in that state of undress(apart from at the pool/on the beach) no matter what their size.

Yes. Health visitors start visiting when a child is a week old and it continues until they're 5, although the parents can call them in at any time, as I did when I was worried about my daughter being too thin at one point. The visits are less frequent as the child gets older, but if the child is taking off so much time from school due to illness you'd think that some sort of health professional would be keeping an eye on things.

We don't have a health visitor for Amory. We take her in to get a check up every now and again, but they have never contacted us about a visit.

How old is she?

I'm surprised that he wasn't sponsored by McDonalds?