Parents, who let their child grow obese, should be forced to sign "responsibility contracts" to manage their kid's health, experts in Australia have suggested
Parents, who let their child grow obese, should be forced to sign "responsibility contracts" to manage their kid's health, experts in Australia have suggested.
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Obesity expert Shirley Alexander has also asked doctors to report parents of obese children, to child protecting authorities, saying it was amounting to child abuse.
"Passive acquiescence by a doctor in the neglect of a severely obese child could constitute a breach of a doctor's duty of care,"u00a0an article by Alexander and three other colleagues said. That neglect could include "failure by the child's parents to ensure a minimally adequate diet and exercise".
"In a sufficiently extreme case, notification to child protection services may be an appropriate professional response," the article said, adding "Obesity has a significant adverse effect on a child's well being, (with) both immediate and long-term medical and psycho-social health problems."
However, a spokeswoman for community services minister Lisa Neville said the government had a neutral stand towards the idea. "If a doctor believes a child is at risk they are obliged to make a report to child protection in any circumstances," said Neville.
Department of Human Services spokesmen Bram Alexander said, "Obesity alone would not be a sole reason for child protection officer to be involved. 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, however, said not all obese children were neglected by their parents. They also warned that taking care of the child out of the hands of their parents might leave them alienated. "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.
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