- Report obese children, doctor urges
- By Nick Miller
- The Age
- 02/02/2009 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 258 articles in 2009 )
LETTING your child grow too fat amounts to child abuse and doctors are duty bound to report such parents to child protection authorities, a Sydney obesity expert says.
Victorian Community Services Minister Lisa Neville yesterday gave the idea limited support, saying a doctor would have to hold a firm view that the child was at risk.
But the State Department of Human Services was not as persuaded, saying obesity alone is not enough to get child protection officers involved.
Dr Shirley Alexander of Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney argued in yesterday's Medical Journal of Australia that if a child was severely obese, parents could be forced to sign "responsibility contracts" to manage their health.
In extreme cases they should even be reported to the courts, she said.
"Passive acquiescence by a doctor in the neglect of a severely obese child … could constitute a breach of a doctor's duty of care," the MJA article by Dr Alexander and three colleagues said. That neglect could include "failure by the child's parents to ensure a minimally adequate diet and exercise".
The article gave the example of four year-old Jade — a fictional case study compiled from several real children.
Jade was 110 centimetres tall and weighed 40 kilograms, with related complications such as high blood pressure, a fatty liver and sleep apnoea.
She watched up to six hours of TV a day and had temper tantrums when she did not get whatever food she desired. Her father allowed her to snack on junk food and did not enforce diet or exercise.
Almost two years after first being referred to doctors, the hospital notified the state's child protection authorities, which imposed a hospital stay, and compulsory supervision when she visited her father.
"In a sufficiently extreme case, notification to child protection services may be an appropriate professional response," the article said. "Obesity has a significant adverse effect on a child's wellbeing, (with) both immediate and long-term medical and psycho-social health problems."
A spokeswoman for community services minister Lisa Neville said the Government was neither fully behind nor fully against the idea.
"If a doctor believes a child is at risk they are obliged to make a report to child protection in any circumstances."
The Department of Human Services responded coolly to the idea.
"Obesity alone would not be a sole reason for child protection to become involved," DHS spokesman Bram Alexander said. "We would look at a whole range of factors before something such as that would be considered as abuse."
He said doctors and other professionals had a duty to report suspected abuse "in the more traditional forms" but not obesity on its own.
The study authors said not all obese children were neglected by their parents. They also warned that taking care of the child out of the hands of the parents might leave the child alienated from their family — "there are few harms to the child that are worth that cost", the article said.
Previous studies have shown that many parents are in denial about their obese children. A study of more than 2100 Victorian children and their families found that 49 per cent of parents with overweight children thought their child was of average, healthy weight.
Victorian Community Services Minister Lisa Neville yesterday gave the idea limited support, saying a doctor would have to hold a firm view that the child was at risk.
But the State Department of Human Services was not as persuaded, saying obesity alone is not enough to get child protection officers involved.
Dr Shirley Alexander of Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney argued in yesterday's Medical Journal of Australia that if a child was severely obese, parents could be forced to sign "responsibility contracts" to manage their health.
In extreme cases they should even be reported to the courts, she said.
"Passive acquiescence by a doctor in the neglect of a severely obese child … could constitute a breach of a doctor's duty of care," the MJA article by Dr Alexander and three colleagues said. That neglect could include "failure by the child's parents to ensure a minimally adequate diet and exercise".
The article gave the example of four year-old Jade — a fictional case study compiled from several real children.
Jade was 110 centimetres tall and weighed 40 kilograms, with related complications such as high blood pressure, a fatty liver and sleep apnoea.
She watched up to six hours of TV a day and had temper tantrums when she did not get whatever food she desired. Her father allowed her to snack on junk food and did not enforce diet or exercise.
Almost two years after first being referred to doctors, the hospital notified the state's child protection authorities, which imposed a hospital stay, and compulsory supervision when she visited her father.
"In a sufficiently extreme case, notification to child protection services may be an appropriate professional response," the article said. "Obesity has a significant adverse effect on a child's wellbeing, (with) both immediate and long-term medical and psycho-social health problems."
A spokeswoman for community services minister Lisa Neville said the Government was neither fully behind nor fully against the idea.
"If a doctor believes a child is at risk they are obliged to make a report to child protection in any circumstances."
The Department of Human Services responded coolly to the idea.
"Obesity alone would not be a sole reason for child protection to become involved," DHS spokesman Bram Alexander said. "We would look at a whole range of factors before something such as that would be considered as abuse."
He said doctors and other professionals had a duty to report suspected abuse "in the more traditional forms" but not obesity on its own.
The study authors said not all obese children were neglected by their parents. They also warned that taking care of the child out of the hands of the parents might leave the child alienated from their family — "there are few harms to the child that are worth that cost", the article said.
Previous studies have shown that many parents are in denial about their obese children. A study of more than 2100 Victorian children and their families found that 49 per cent of parents with overweight children thought their child was of average, healthy weight.
Source: https://www.theage.com.au/national/report-obese-children-doctor-urges-20090201-7usw.html?page=-1
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