Atomic Rooster
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Fattest children to be taken away from their parents - The Independent
Kinda drastic, don't ya think?By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
Saturday, 16 August 2008
Dangerously overweight children will have to be taken from their parents and put into care because of Britain's worsening "obesity epidemic", council leaders have warned.
One million children will be clinically obese within four years on current trends, storing up future problems from heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure and diabetes.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents 400 councils in England and Wales, predicted social services teams would have to take drastic action to improve the health of seriously overweight children.
Social workers have only become involved very rarely in such cases, considering the issue is best tackled by parents.
But the LGA warned that social services might have to treat very fat children as victims of "parental neglect" – just as malnourished children are.
It predicted that social services would have to intervene "more and more" with obese children. It added that councils would have to take action against parents who put their children's health at risk, with the ultimate sanction of taking the fattest boys and girls into care.
The LGA said Britain was fast becoming the "obesity capital of the world" and the increasing weight of the average citizen was pushing up council tax bills.