The Parenting Fallacy: Why Taking Fat Kids From Their Parents Will Only Make Things Worse

The latest controversy about childhood obesity centers around whether obese children should be removed from their parents care.  The argument is as follows: "Obese children are obese because they don't exercise enough or eat too much, so taking them away from their parents and putting them in a different family environment with healthier role models should help them lose weight."

This argument makes two major assumptions that I take issue with, so I'm going to address them one at a time.

First Thoughts

People who are seriously obese are that way for a broad range of reasons. Some of these reasons are medical, some genetic, and some psychological, but all of these are generally ignored in favor of "you're just lazy".

How do I know this? When I was eight, my thyroid stopped working. Despite a family history of thyroid problems, my doctor didn't even deign to have me tested. He said that hypothyroidism was "overdiagnosed," and for the next four years I was subjected to an onslaught of dietitians and other specialists who treated me like I just wasn't trying hard enough. 

Understand, my mother was counting the grapes she put in my lunch. No healthy amount of dieting could have allowed me to lose weight; I was gaining it because my body didn't work properly. That didn't matter though. Even after I was diagnosed, I never got an apology from anyone involved. They felt they were right to treat me the way they did; after all, I was fat, so I was clearly doing something wrong.