Thanks to Sir Jamie O, there's still a lot of emphasis on encouraging kids to eat healthily at the moment, and rightly so. But I can't help wondering if it's all gone a bit Big Brother if fat children are being taken away from their families and put into care.
The decision to place two children from this particular family into care was made when it emerged that one of the children, aged three, weighed 4st while another, aged 12, weighed 16st. (It is the three-year-old and a four-year-old who have been taken into care, leaving the mother – who is pregnant – bereft.)
To be honest, I can think of quite a few families where the children are slightly on the heavy side and could do with a few less snacks and a lot more exercise. Does that make them 'bad' parents? Of course not.
While I agree that feeding your child an endless diet of snacks and junk food is irresponsible, I'm not sure it's actually neglect. What do you think?
written by Liz Jarvis