Should parents be held responsible if their kids are obese? is it child abuse?

Held responsible by whom, exactly? The Good Parenting Police?

No it would only be in extreme cases that parents could be blamed...It can be very hard for parents to control the diet of their children outside of the home. Further, there’s so much pressure from advertizing and not a lot of information on good diet. Look at the number of obese adults...is blaming any help at all? For me what is criminal are ad upon ad for high calorie foods, with few real controls and government knowledge about the harm many junk foods cause but, it's all business...

Like TrgdyAnn said, if the obesity is caused by the parent's neglect then, yes, they most certainly should be held responsible. They should have the same consequences as anyone who endangers the welfare of their child.

It is not child abuse to let your child get obese. Morbid obesity is another issue; South Carolina officials arrested a mom for neglect, not child abuse, when her 14-year-old son weighed 555 pounds this summer.

If there is a medical reason involved maybe not but if you just give a child what they want instead of feeding them healthy foods then yes I would think so..To much T.V and videos and not enough exercise for children now a days people tend to let these things Raise there children anymore

Responsible to a certain extent but some parents haven't been educated to know what is good or bad, and, of course not for medical reasons.

Re educate them

Medical issues aside, the parents have a responsibility to raise a healthy child. But it's not abuse or neglect of anykind, just a poor parental choice. That alone does not make them bad parents as we've all screwed up somewhere. After all kids don't come with manuals.

Yes , Yes and yes. And for any crimes the commit.

That depends on the age of the child. For very young children they should be held responsible. It's not child abuse it is just bad parenting. They should be ordered to take a parenting course and a cooking course/nutrition course so they can learn the right way to parent the child.

Ok well there are a lot of arguments on this one. In some cases it can be a medical problem, it can be hereditary and there are people that have a junk cupboard full with crap and within the childs reach. That is when its child abuse and when all they are fed is fast food and chips etc.

I do think that social workers or health nurses should investigate a bit more with house calls and that to see what exactly is causing the problem.

If the child is so obese it's damaging their health, yes.
But by child I mean up to age 10, not a teenager.

it is the parents responsibility to make sure their child is healthy

Well said vlowery, I had someone have a go at me here because I chose not to buy my kids x-boxs or computer games cause I would rather hear them yelling and playing outside rather than at a tv or puter consol she accused me of living in the dark ages. WE control what goes into our young kids mouths, our house has the rule of healthy food before junk and treats are just that treats not everyday food. Teenagers wellll I'm not there yet I'll worry bout that later lol. So the answer is YES.

It is parents responsibility to see what their children are putting into their bodies...yes...who else will do that?
It is child abuse when 10 year old is 200 lb...How is is different from spanking your kids? You "spank" and kill their organs from inside out.

Yes they should be held responsible but it also depends on the age, the way the kids body takes food and many other factors. I wouldn't call it child abuse unless they are under ten, those are ages when we can control their food intake, older than that is much harder to control the food they eat.

Yes, and when thier kids hate them later, that's good enough. No, it's not. I believe in personal freedom, and if I had a fifteen year old boy, and he called me out, and I hit him just hard enough to knock him down, then told him I'd really **** him up if he got up, I don't think that'd be abuse either. Though I probably wouldn't have done more than spank him as a little boy before then.

It's dual responsibility. When kids are totally dependent on their parents it's the parents responsibility and they know that obese kids have problems socially and should make sure that their kids are not fat and bullied. As the kids become older and can do for themselves parents should continue to maintain control over what's provided for their kids. I was the food preparer until my kids left my home as adults at 18. I set rules for them about when to eat. There was no eating after 3PM and dinner time was a 6PM. Wasn't no snacking in between breakfast and lunch and not after dinner. I didn't have a lot of sweets. Good habits instilled in kids as youngsters will help them keep them in good physical shape.

Not legally, no nor do I think CPS needs to be involved either. One thing that might help childhood obesity AND ADD/ADHD is for parents to turn off the computers, the game consoles and the television sets and make their kids go outside and play. As it is the only body part that gets regular exercise is their thumbs. I also think the McDonald's mentality doesn't help much either. If we started actually eating dinner at the table instead of wherever and whenever, not only would obesity not be as much of a problem but family ties would be much stronger too! The family table is a place where families can reunite with one another. Too bad that's considered old-fashioned. It's one of my happiest childhood memories.