The 9-year-old boy who was removed from his home and placed in foster care when his weight ballooned to over 200 pounds, has now been sent to live with his uncle. He has already lost nearly 10 pounds.
His mother continues to deny that she is to blame for her son’s weight.
“They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don’t love my child,” the boy’s mother told the Plain Dealer newspaper. “Of course I love him. Of course I want him to lose weight. It’s a lifestyle change, and they are trying to make it seem like I am not embracing that. It is very hard, but I am trying.”
He should weigh about 60 pounds, based on his height and his age, government workers said.
“We have worked very hard with this family for 20 months before it got to this point,” the agency’s administrator, Patricia Rideout, said, adding that a judge approved the decision to put the boy into foster care.
This is not the first we’ve of heard of cases like this. In August of 2000, Anamarie Regino, 3-year-old who weighed 90 pounds was removed from her home and put into foster care. The family later reported that the separation did not cause Anamarie to lose any weight. In fact, she was diagnosed with a genetic issue which was the cause of the her weight problem.
In 2009, 14-year-old Alexander Draper was removed from his South Carolina home when his weight reached 555 pounds. He was eventually sent to live with his aunt and lost more than 200 pounds.
It’s clearly not a black and white situation. Sometimes removing the child from a toxic environment is the best option for the child. Othertimes…not so much. It’s a sensitive subject, but one that can’t be ignored as childhood obesity continues to grow in this country.
The county says their goal is to get the boy back to a healthy weight and back to living with his mother again soon.