Should extremely fat children be taken into care?

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I think definitely not. I think it is damging to remove kids from their loved ones unless their lives are at risk and it could be argued that obesity fits this category, but I think there are solutions.

I think families with overweight kids should get support and educated on why they eat and what to eat. Quite often it is related to emotional disorders and often the parent of an overweight child may have depression or emotional upset due to life events and they may comfort eat.

Wiithout realising they are a role model to their child. If the parents and child recognise they reach for food when feling upset or down they could learn other ways to deal with it.

In this day and age as well, many kids lack exercise and enjoy communicating through technology. I think a good incentive would be free gym membership for kids as gyms are very expensive and kids enjoy using the equipment. I know there is always the park but try getting a stubborn teenager to do what they dont want to- it's very hard.

It would be cheaper to educate the parents.

our baths are giving free swimming between 2 and 4 Monday till Friday during the holidays for the kids

not quite sure what age you have to be to go without an adult but my grandsons 10 and goes with his Friends (all around the same age)

a very good idea i would say its good exercise and gets the kids out the house

the numbers wouldnt add up, millions of children would need to rehomed.

the mistreatment horror stories would be a mile high

When you say "taken into care" do you infer that you know of a secret stash of under utilised foster carers and children's homes which could be used specifically for this purpose?

You could argue that a lot of the slim ones are going to be unhealthy in the future with the amount of junk food they are given - you can't just take kids into care. However, I don't see any reason why 'the system' can't make those parents and children attend some sort of lifestyle class - that covers healthier choices, exercise and so on. Bad habits need to be broken really. If the parents are lazy then teach them ways of giving themselves and their kids better foods from a packet. And then gradually teach them cooking methods.

It's modern society that's to blame, and yes, those parents are part of that modern society and helped shape it like the rest of us. But most people are lucky in that their kids just don't show the weight (metabolism).

A lot of society's weight issues would be solved if people didn't snack all the time. Have you ever noticed that, when watching adverts, probably around 8 out of 10 adverts are selling a food product!!! And cooking shows only ever seem to demonstrate 'high end' food which is out of the reach of most people, and probably out of their cooking capability and budget. When I was a kid (sound like me mother now! lol) we got three meals a day - full stop - nothing more, ever! Biscuits and cake were a rare treat. All food was home cooked and made to stretch to feed all five of us plus me dad. Nothing was wasted. School dinners were proper dinners not the cr*p they serve today and packed lunches were unheard of.

There are a lot of issues going on with fatness and there's no single blame factor - big corporations need to sell their stuff, and we like to eat it. Result - obesity. The parents of fat kids don't think they are abusing their children - they love them as much as the next parent.

Just my humble opinion.