(AP) CLEVELAND - An 8-year-old elementary school student who weighs more than 200 pounds has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight.
The Plain Dealer newspaper reports that the Cleveland 8-year-old is considered severely obese and at risk for such diseases as diabetes and hypertension.
The case is the first state officials can recall of a child being put in foster care strictly for a weight-related issue.
Lawyers for the mother say the county overreached when authorities took the boy last week. They say the medical problems he is at risk for do not yet pose an imminent danger.
A spokeswoman says the county removed the child because caseworkers saw his mother's inability to reduce his weight as medical neglect.
This bugs me, imagine the fat kid, thinking "I am fat, and it's my fault, I've been taken away from my parents!" Why do these people always act like the weight is under anyone's CONTROL. Maybe this kid needs tested for medical or endocrine problems. Normal eight year olds do not become 200lbs. Even here the social services is based on the false pseudo-science of calories in, fat out, nonsense we are all oppressed by. There is money changing hands with a lot of these social services agencies. The corruption is rife. How many will now use weight as an excuse to take children away from parents? Why don't they help the family with grocery money, a nutritionist or a gym membership? The children are paying the most for the bad adulterated food with endless sugars and chemicals to ensure that full signals from the brain do not work, and to lead them to full blown insulin resistance.