Posted on 03/23/2007 3:37:27 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
TRYON, N.C. — A North Carolina mom has two months to get her 250-pound son's weight down before Polk County social workers decide whether to remove him from her home.
Justin Painter is only 7 years old but already weighs more than many adults.
Joyce Painter said she's taken her son to different doctors over the past four years, but no one has been able to pinpoint the cause of his obesity. She also says she keeps her son active. Painter said she began noticing her son putting on a lot of weight when he was 3 years old.
Most doctors told her to watch his diet. Painter said she's done her best to make sure Justin is not eating more than he should. She told WSPA-TV in South Carolina that she gives Justin one plate of food at meals, complete with vegetables, and doesn't give him chips or cookies.
"I do the best I can to cook him healthy meals and everything," Painter told WSPA-TV. "If I'm doing something wrong, show me, show me what I'm doing … if there's something in there I shouldn't have, show me so I can throw it out:"
The Division of Social Services has threatened to remove Justin from their home if he doesn't lose weight.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Hominy grits?
Oh about 12-1400..........................
Since the folks that have been sent to DC the past 30-40 years have slowly, but surely, eroded the Constitution so that it doesn't mean much anymore. Of course unless it suits their fancy at any given moment.
Above statement excludes Ron Paul.
Your point is correct about parental rights. I was just saying, no matter how this turns out now, DSS screwed this kid up.
Now, I will add here what I learned yesterday.
What ever entity this nationalguidelines.org group is, they had the NEAs at national and local levels sign on with them. Now, these standards are being applied through all the educational systems, public and private.
They have envoked in loco parentis and redefined families as STAKEHOLDERS. The educational system is now the primary responsible guardian of the children.
I'm not kidding.
Reminds me of a friend of my parents years ago who blamed her gross obesity on "glands." While skepticism is still a reasonable posture in these "mysterious" cases, there is an outside chance the mother is telling the truth. I have recently learned that there is a certain rare condition characterized by a hormone deficit which can result in early onset of morbid obesity. I cannot recall the name of the syndrome as I sit here but I worked with a young man who had it. Basically he was physically very weak, was sexually undeveloped even though in his twenties, and it seemed every calorie he took in was converted to fat.
I was thinking Prader Willi too,
or Cushings (maybe).
The kid probably has a glandular problem. If Social Sevices grabs him, he will probably weigh 350 in 6 months : )
We are not surprised at this. We knew that once the smokers were under the thumb of the government and PC crowd, the next group would be the obese. And mark my words, they won't stop at obesity. Just being overweight will be cause for all sorts of restrictions.
I didn't read the whole thread yet, but the Mother was on TV ---- and she should be on a diet, too.
I hope you're right, in which case, the child can be treated.
There's a third condition that could be at play here.
If this kid has problems with constipation, he could have too much bowel. When food passes through small intestines that are abnormally long, it sucks the water right out. Vitamins, sugars, protein and fat are digested long after the stomach has emptied. End result? An "overly-efficient" digestive tract that makes it nearly impossible to lose weight.
There's only one way to fix it.
Megacolon? Or are you talking IBS or colitis?
Congenital leptin deficiency is another possibility.
I'm not familiar with "Megacolon," but it's not IBS or colitis.
Is there such a condition? Does it have a name now?
I recall seeing something on the Discovery Health Channel about a child (a girl) who was gaining weight at an incredible rate. At first the parents were blamed for over feeding until other symptoms presented and a good doctor ran the right tests and made the diagnosis. It might have been Prader-Willi Syndrome but I don’t remember.
I do remember another case where a mother was accused of feeding her child anti-freeze as a result of Munchausen by Proxy. Blood tests showed that the child had anti-freeze in his blood. Despite her and her husband’s pleas of innocence the mother was convicted and sent to jail. But before she was sentenced she became pregnant and the child was taken from her at birth. While the second child was in foster care, he and the first child showed the same symptoms and had the same results from blood tests although the mother was still in jail.
She was later released from jail as further tests showed both children suffered from a rare blood disorder.
1 lb of fat = 3500 calories. PERIOD!!.
Basic calories that the little fella has to burn to stay alive is about 1500 calories, and that assumes he doesn't move!
the principal of energy conservation applies here too, fat is energy and it just doesn;t appear from anywhere. The kid has to be eating way more calories than he burns, and he shouldn't be eating more than 2000 calories. i would imagine 4-5000, which is what i did in college, but with high levels of activity.
Spastic colon is another term. I've seen only one megacolon, but they were post chemo and their gut had pretty much quit working.
My bets are on some inborn error of metabolism if it isn't the child grossly overeating.
The issue being that as a child, he's burning more kcal per kg than an adult, so he needs more to develop and grow.
I'm not saying he isn't overeating, but that he has a larger caloric 'buffer' than an adult.
I looked up megacolon, and no, that's not it either.
What I'm describing is a small intestine that's just ridiculously long. 19-22 feet is normal, but I know of at least one case where it ran nearly 40 feet. If there's a clinical name for this troublesome condition I've never heard it.
Ya know,
that's a good possibility. And removing X number of feet of excess would do the trick.
She said one plate of food at meals. She didn't say how big the plate was.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.