Jessica: 7 years old. 222 kilo.

Wow that is one fat kid! Those parents are also fat as hell. This is child abuse IMHO.

But I must admit, I'm vey skeptical of the 222kg weight given - I don't see any way she's that heavy. If she's 222kg, her mother is pushing 400kg. I think the given weight is an error. No way she'd be able to move around at all if she was really 222kg.

Can't find nothing on her in the local (Chicago) media.
 
Come on, Jessica's been on Maury, The Insider or whatever other ET clone show out there, and all over teh internets. She's huge in more ways than one...

Here's a video
 
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WildCat said:
Can't find nothing on her in the local (Chicago) media.
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Very odd. The only google hit for that kid's name is that article.

Come on, Jessica's been on Maury, The Insider or whatever other ET clone show out there, and all over teh internets. She's huge in more ways than one...
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There will come a time when everyone has been on Maury.
 
The condition that makes people want to eat constantly is called Prader-Willi Syndrome. It's a genetic condition, and so is present from birth. If this kid only started overeating in the last year, she hasn't got it.
However, I don't believe any normal kid will actually eat all that much all day, every day, however much her criminally stupid mother overfeeds her. So it might be possible that she's got something like a benign tumour on her hypothalamus that has destroyed her appetite control, so that she really is perpetually hungry.
Of course, it might just be overfeeding. She's got to the point where she can barely move, so she must be a mess psychologically. She could be eating out of sheer boredom and depression, and because there's literally nothing else for her to do.
Whatever, she should be taken away from that idiotic parent and into hospital straight away.
 
CFLarsen said:
Nowhere in the story - which you can also read here - does it say anything about eating disorders or anything else than the mother gives the child what it wants.

If a child has eating disorders like the one you describe, would you feed it burgers, chips, chocolate and cola?
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The child definitely has some kind of eating disorder, but there's no question that parents are enabling it. This is the type of situation that requires professional help for everyone involved.
 
What a horrible story. Looks like the mom hasn't missed many meals herself. She is feeding the kid to death, and this is child abuse, as certainly as starving her to death would be. Whether it's through mom's ignorance, design, stupidity, or insanity, this kid should be taken away from her.
 
It should be noted that the parents may simply not know that burgers and fries are fattening and unhealthy if eaten exclusively. That is common in low-income households (if this is one).
 
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WildCat said:
But I must admit, I'm vey skeptical of the 222kg weight given - I don't see any way she's that heavy. If she's 222kg, her mother is pushing 400kg. I think the given weight is an error. No way she'd be able to move around at all if she was really 222kg.
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Yes, my thought too. No way thats 220 kg. It has to be a missunderstanding of the american pound vs european kilogram. 220 pounds, thats about what she looks like. Still terrible for a seven year old though.
 
tkingdoll said:
It should be noted that the parents may simply not know that burgers and fries are fattening and unhealthy. That is common in low-income households (if this is one).
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I really find that hard to believe. I understand they might not be as educated about a good diet, but they would have to be raised in a bubble to be that ignorant.
 
Tailgater said:
I really find that hard to believe. I understand they might not be as educated about a good diet, but they would have to be raised in a bubble to be that ignorant.
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You post on this website and you really think people would have to be raised in a bubble to be that ignorant? Peter Popoff still has work. People believe astronomy is science. People watched the World Trade Center collapse live on television and still think it was a laser from outer space caused the whole thing. A disturbingly large proportion of the U.S. population believes they're made of some magic sauce that could be sucked away into the sky at any moment by an invisible father figure, right before he kicks everyone elses' asses. Homeopathy. HOMEOPATHY.

Yes. People everywhere are tragically ignorant.
 
Tailgater said:
I really find that hard to believe. I understand they might not be as educated about a good diet, but they would have to be raised in a bubble to be that ignorant.
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Actually it's not uncommon. I know someone who works with families in poverty and those families literally have no idea that certain foods are not suitable for mass consumption. They have received no education about the basic food groups or what saturated fat and calories actually are (much less what impact excess can have). They will send their kids to fast food joints daily because it represents cheap and easy food. These are families who have no idea how to prepare fresh fruit and vegetables, much less understand the benefits of them. Families who never cook.

Many people are, in fact, raised in a bubble. Or as society calls it, the poverty trap. It's a cycle, and very hard to break.

I recently bought some asparagus from a greengrocers in a low-income area. The shop assistant didn't know what it was. That's one end of the scale. The other end is children not knowing that meat and milk comes from animals, or that an egg can become a chicken, or what a raw potato looks like. Those children have children. And so on.

PSSST Delphi, edit your typo :D
 
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delphi_ote said:
You post on this website and you really think people would have to be raised in a bubble to be that ignorant? Peter Popoff still has work. People believe astronomy is science. People watched the World Trade Center collapse live on television and still think it was a laser from outer space caused the whole thing. A disturbingly large proportion of the U.S. population believes they're made of some magic sauce that could be sucked away into the sky at any moment by an invisible father figure, right before he kicks everyone elses' asses. Homeopathy. HOMEOPATHY.

Yes. People everywhere are tragically ignorant.
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Point taken.:D
 
delphi_ote said:
snip/
People believe astronomy is science.
/snip
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Nothing wrong with that. ;)

A horrible story and I agree that authorities should do something immediately, even if it includes taking custody of the child. Her mother seems to be a total moron and ignorant of the facts. Seeing your child like this, having heard the doctors and still feeding it as if nothing happened is homicide imho.


ETA: Argh, Claus beat me to it.
 
I'm reserving judgment. That is what I said, isn't it?

The judgment that the child has an appetite disorder is based on the child's weight. People that overweight almost always have physical and psychological reasons to overeat.

That the child needs immediate help is obvious. That the child would be healthy if she were transferred to the hands of parents who have a clue is not.

Of course the mother should not give the child junk food. But these children are starving. They will go to great lengths to get at food. In many cases the parent has just given up and chosen to give the child whatever it wants.


sophia8, thanks for saying Prader-Willi. I couldn't remember the name.

teek, my mother is a retired dietitian and she used to go around telling teenaged mothers not to give the baby Kool-Aid. After I heard some of her stories I was convinced that a large segment of Americans know nothing about how to eat.
 
ChristineR said:
I'm reserving judgment. That is what I said, isn't it?

The judgment that the child has an appetite disorder is based on the child's weight. People that overweight almost always have physical and psychological reasons to overeat.

That the child needs immediate help is obvious. That the child would be healthy if she were transferred to the hands of parents who have a clue is not.

Of course the mother should not give the child junk food. But these children are starving. They will go to great lengths to get at food. In many cases the parent has just given up and chosen to give the child whatever it wants.
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If she were transferred to the hands of people who have a clue, and would therefore not serve the child junk food, the child would be healthier.

Do you agree that if she stays with her mother, she will die?
 
CFLarsen said:
Snipped from the article:
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A daily menu consisting of e.g. 15 burges with fried, several kilos of chocolate and 5 liters of cola has resulted in her weigth exploding. Breakfast consists of white bread, chips and a couple of liters of cola. She consumes 10,000 calories a day - the recommended energy consumption for an average adult woman is 2,400 calories!

According to an American TV station, she weighed "only" 110 kilos a year ago.

The mother's reaction to the doctors: She is hungry.

Jessicas bones are damaged by the huge weight, and running is out of the question for the girl, who mostly needs to crawl across the floor to get anywhere. For the benefit of the TV-crew she can do a few seconds of dancing, but then the girl is exhausted.
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Why isn't this kid immediately removed from her mother?
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Presumably because she lives in the Land of the Free and not in a meddling socialist state.
 
ChristineR, I agree with you. Clearly the child has a serious problem and her mother is enabling her. But I'm not sure the child would be better off with someone else. Taking a child from his or her parents has serious harmful repercussions to both child and parents. It's a lose-lose situation. Even in cases with clear physical abuse, the child is emotionally attached to the parent(s). In some cases, the abuse or neglect is sufficient to justify it particularly if the parent is unlikely to change. But often the parents simply need help in dealing with their child and if help is provided, a win-win outcome is possible. With so little information to go on, it's simply not reasonable to jump to the conclusion the child should be removed from her home. While that is may be the best solution, no way can that be determined from the information available here.
 
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