400 pound 7-year-old

[Mongrel]

No, little sigh, not everything is the parents fault.

But they're the obvious people to blame. (And by "obvious" I mean "most apparant.") Any way you look at it, there has to be an enabler somewhere along the line. She didn't get to be hundreds of pounds overweight by herself. Maybe it was someone else living with her who encouraged her eating habits, but it seems far more likely that the parents encouraged it--barring that, they still didn't take the necessary steps to treat her problems before they affected her life permanently.

[Asthaloth]

No, little sigh, not everything is the parents fault.

But they're the obvious people to blame. (And by "obvious" I mean "most apparant.") Any way you look at it, there has to be an enabler somewhere along the line. She didn't get to be hundreds of pounds overweight by herself. Maybe it was someone else living with her who encouraged her eating habits, but it seems far more likely that the parents encouraged it--barring that, they still didn't take the necessary steps to treat her problems before they affected her life permanently.

Or, she's bullemic (Bullemic... The anti-anorexia).
The problem is, no one will take blame for their actions. Ever.
someone gets run over, they sue the driver and paste over the fact that they weren't paying attention.
Someone dies in surgery and their family sues the damn hospital!
That's the problem you see, no one is willing to accept that they were wrong and will shift the blame.
Mind the Xenophobia and inherent G-D complex of humanity doesn't help either.

[ahoteinrun]

No, little sigh, not everything is the parents fault.

But they're the obvious people to blame. (And by "obvious" I mean "most apparant.") Any way you look at it, there has to be an enabler somewhere along the line. She didn't get to be hundreds of pounds overweight by herself. Maybe it was someone else living with her who encouraged her eating habits, but it seems far more likely that the parents encouraged it--barring that, they still didn't take the necessary steps to treat her problems before they affected her life permanently.

Or, she's bullemic (Bullemic... The anti-anorexia).
The problem is, no one will take blame for their actions. Ever.
someone gets run over, they sue the driver and paste over the fact that they weren't paying attention.
Someone dies in surgery and their family sues the damn hospital!
That's the problem you see, no one is willing to accept that they were wrong and will shift the blame.
Mind the Xenophobia and inherent G-D complex of humanity doesn't help either.

She's not bulimic. Bullemic generally involves a weight loss as well. If she had a disease such as Prayder Willies syndrome where she was always hungry, this would be quite understandable. Bulimia involves binge eating and normally throwing up or using something else (laxatives) to help pass the food through you.
She may have something else going on mentally which makes her hungry. Prayder Willies is a big issue, it's a scary disorder where the person never feels full, so they always want to eat. It needs to be managed properly and carefully and i've only met one kid with it and her parents watched her like a hawk (and so did the camp I worked at). It's terrifying. Everything she ate had to be measured out. She could have "one cup" of chips, or "one tablespoon of salad dressing". Their bodies process food differently (because they constantly think they're starving), so she was on a low fat diet for the most part. It also creates obsessive compulsive disorders because (in her case at least), you become obsessive about amounts and weights and such.
Anyways. I think given her age, it is more of a parental thing. If she was older I wouldn't have a problem with this. But they've known she's had issues for awhile. I've seen her on Maury every so often for the past couple years. Her mother or grandmother always cries about not knowing what to do and how she needs help and i'm sorry, but obviously nothing had been changing. That I would consider to be parental blame. I'd also be willing to throw child services into the mix considering this is quite cruel and obviously abuse (they're hurting her quality of life), and child services should have stepped in or forced something upon her considering the conditions. It's not just abuse if you 'starve' your children.

Whats worse is she's not the only child out there like this. Those Maury shows parade quite a few of them around.

[Asthaloth]

Like I say, I couldn't remember which one it was.

And frankly, that's rubbish.
Being as I am rather Obsessive compulsive, I know just how hard it is for someone else to stop me, Lord knows my parents have been trying for about fifteen years now.
It's up to me, and me alone. and would I blame my parents?
No.
So why should you be blaming her parents.

[ahoteinrun]

Like I say, I couldn't remember which one it was.

And frankly, that's rubbish.
Being as I am rather Obsessive compulsive, I know just how hard it is for someone else to stop me, Lord knows my parents have been trying for about fifteen years now.
It's up to me, and me alone. and would I blame my parents?
No.
So why should you be blaming her parents.

Because she's had this problem since she was a baby. And her parents can't say no to her. I have nephews who are 2 and 6. It's easy to say no to them. They could eat themselves into a situation like her if they wanted. Notice what she was asking for in the video? Popcorn? When i've seen her on Maury (and she is a sweet girl), she'd talk about hamburgers, nachos... fries... never fruit or vegetables.
Considering how young she is it is her parents fault. I'm sure my nephews could be 200-400 pounds too if all my brother or his exwife did was feed them crap food. (I'm sure his wife does, but at least she doesn't do it in excess). The kid can ask, yes. But you can say no. Even if she does have a disorder that forces her into wanting to over eat, her parents controlled her food at that age. HER PARENTS. They havn't been controlling at all, hence why it's out of control.
I don't believe that you can always blame the parents, I do believe in taking blame for things. But given this girls age, and situation I can't believe that the parents are scotch free.

[Asthaloth]

So I am to take anecdotal evidence designed to sell the story to the masses at face value?
Yeah, no thanks.

I'd rather sit in my bubble of Ignorance believing humanity can actually achieve something personally.

[Igg]

So I am to take anecdotal evidence designed to sell the story to the masses at face value?
Yeah, no thanks.

I'd rather sit in my bubble of Ignorance believing humanity can actually achieve something personally.

This post makes no sense and has almost no relevance to the thread.

[Kugetsu]

I would just like to point out that only one type of bulimia involves purging. The other involves constant eating due to the hypothalamus or hippocampus (I forget which, though the hypothalamus seems more likely), having been formed incorrectly, and I don't believe that one with that ends up losing weight because of it (unless some sort chemical is at work here). She could be bulimic, however... I doubt that's the case as it probably would have been diagnosed by now, seeing as she's at such a young age, no? Especially with national coverage like this?

And also... it's a bit silly to say the parents should take no fault for this. Who buys and gives her the food she eats...? She wouldn't be over-eating if she wasn't being given food to over-eat on. I would understand if it was something genetic, but much of the time it is not, and that probably would have been caught already, and I assume probably would have been on the clip as well. Saying the parents should take no blame is as viable as saying they should take all of it. No one person or group of people is solely responsible. Someone could have talked to the parents about it, a relative or friend perhaps. They could have stepped in and said voice their convern, but it doesn't look like that happened, until now (or when that was recorded... it's pretty old), when it's worse than it could have been..

[Igg]

The specific subtypes of bulimia are distinguished by the way the bulimic relieves themself of the binge.

Purging type
The purging type involves self-induced vomiting, laxatives, diuretics, tapeworms, enemas, or ipecac, as a means of rapidly extricating the contents from their body. This type is generally more found, and can use one or more of the above methods. [8]

Non-Purging Type
This type of bulimia is rarely found (occurring in only approximately 6%-8% of cases), as it is a less effective means of ridding the body of such a large number of calories. This type of bulimia involves engaging in excessive exercise or fasting following a binge in order to counteract the large amount of calories previously ingested. This is frequently observed in purging-type bulimics as well, however this method is, by definition, not their primary form of weight control following a binge

[Susannahmio]

Like I say, I couldn't remember which one it was.

And frankly, that's rubbish.
Being as I am rather Obsessive compulsive, I know just how hard it is for someone else to stop me, Lord knows my parents have been trying for about fifteen years now.
It's up to me, and me alone. and would I blame my parents?
No.
So why should you be blaming her parents.

You are also not 5 years old. Jessica was 5 years old and 200 pounds. My 5 year old niece will go to the cupboard to get a treat and her mother will take it away. It would be different if she was obsessive compulsive about any other thing, like opening drawers for instance. That is something less likely to be controlled by the parents. A 5 year old cannot go to the store and buy whatever food she wants, it has to come from the parents or other family and friends. Personally I would hope that any parents whose child demands food the way Jessica did would seek the advice of a doctor instead of giving into the childs demands.

My nephew who is 3 refuses to eat regular meals, all he wants is junk food. His mother has taken him to see a doctor and he doesn't seem to have a disorder, it's just the choice he is making. He knows if he holds out long enough his mother will feel bad that he hasn't had anything to eat all day and will give him a granola bar or some pudding. he is not overweight because they are in control of his choices now. They are taking the steps necessary to change his eating habits.

[ahoteinrun]

My nephews will go to my parents house and will chow down on fruit. Seriously. It's the scariest thing ever. They live with their mother and she doesn't give them enough of it, and they are healthy kids so their bodies crave it.
*shrugs* Of course they love candy and stuff too, but the vast array of fruit never fails to entice them at my parents house.

Little kids can often go through periods of not wanting to eat a lot of food (growth cycle related) so it's not unlikely that they don't always want to eat.

[Fiddelysquat]

In this case, every ounce of the blame (no pun intended) rests with the parents. As a parent, you regulate your child's food intake. People are saying that she weighed in at 200 pounds by age 5. This means that she was still drastically overweight as an infant. If you're suggesting that a two year old should have the presence of mind and self control to eat a balanced diet on their own, that's just ridiculous.

My mother was a pediatrician who went to court many times in cases of child abuse. Harming your child's health by giving them a bad diet is child abuse. It goes both ways. One vegan woman decided her son wouldn't eat an ounce of meat or fat. By the time she finally got him help, my mom had to force him to eat sticks of butter because he was dying. She also had to petition to have a local girl removed from her parents' custody because they overfed her to the point where she had adult onset diabetes at the age of 4 and was at risk for heart failure.

If this child were 18 and gained that amount of weight, I would rest part of the blame on her shoulders. But as a young child, her food intake is strictly controlled by her parents, and they are digging an early grave for their own child by allowing this to continue.

[Asthaloth]

So I am to take anecdotal evidence designed to sell the story to the masses at face value?
Yeah, no thanks.

I'd rather sit in my bubble of Ignorance believing humanity can actually achieve something personally.

This post makes no sense and has almost no relevance to the thread.

My point, which was made plenty fine, was that the only evidence you have is what the media tells you.
And as we all now from the "OMG! SPEED CAMERAS! BIG BROTHER!1!!1!!" Tabloids of the UK, they are about as reliable as a chocolate fire guard (To use a tired Metaphor)

[Fiddelysquat]

So I am to take anecdotal evidence designed to sell the story to the masses at face value?
Yeah, no thanks.

I'd rather sit in my bubble of Ignorance believing humanity can actually achieve something personally.

This post makes no sense and has almost no relevance to the thread.

My point, which was made plenty fine, was that the only evidence you have is what the media tells you.
And as we all now from the "OMG! SPEED CAMERAS! BIG BROTHER!1!!1!!" Tabloids of the UK, they are about as reliable as a chocolate fire guard (To use a tired Metaphor)

Unless that was a seven year old in a very convincing fat suit, your point is still nonsensical in this situation.

[Asthaloth]

Okay. I'll go slowly.

Media: OMG SHES FAT.

Hypothetical family: Thats because she has genetic issues/ eating disorder / Vile alien parasite that feeds off of fat /Whatever.

Media: I know, we can make money from this poor excuse of a sob story, lets sensationalise the story and with-hold half the truth while playing to the parts that get us money like we always do and have done for millenia!

People that don't believe they do this: OMG SHE'S FAT AND I BLAME THE PARENTS!