Fat children ‘should be taken into care’

I cannot see ANY excuse for a child younger than 10 being obese. Nothing to do with body type, metabolism etc. Just two things bad diet and lack of exercise, it really is as simple as that.

Excuses are one thing, reasons are what need to be dealt with.

Removing children from their parents really doesn't address that. The parents will feel victimised for something that they don't see as wrong, the children will feel traumatised by what they perceive as an injustice and the social services will be hobbled by rules and regulations that are beaureacratic and inflexible.

The ridiculous thing is that social services already have kinder, cheaper and more effective tools at their disposal to respond to childhood obesity that will encourage the family to the practice of community support.

Reducing the equation to bad diet and lack of exercise is an over simplification that only hinders things. You need to look for the root causes of these things and address each case individually. Commonly you'll find poor education and commodification/economic adversity but then you might also find crisis, abuse and so on.

I'm presuming that you wouldn't respond to childhood obesity by telling a multiply bereaved family, for example, to HTFU, eat right and get out more. I hope I'm not wong.