The Daily Mirror last week revealed figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showing that 74 obese children have been taken into care in the past five years – and if NHS statistics are right 10% of all children are now significantly overweight.
There is no doubt that a poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle are having an increasingly damaging effect on children’s health and fitness. But it is important to remember that a Court cannot approve a care order unless it is satisfied that the child in question has suffered or is at risk of suffering significant harm due to inadequate parental care or neglect.
Being too fat will not be a reason for a child to be taken into care, unless there is medical evidence of serious health risks which the parents are failing to address – and it is likely that there were other significant problems in the cases quoted by the Daily Mirror, which the statistics don’t show.
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