Is Feeding Your Kids Junk Food Child Abuse?

by Katherine Gustafson · 2010-03-09 06:01:00 UTC
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"America is guilty of child abuse. That’s a central conclusion to be drawn from this issue of Health Affairs, devoted to combating child obesity," writes Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief of the journal, which this month has published a sheaf of articles about childhood obesity (H/T to Marion Nestle).

Titles in the issue include things like like "Childhood Obesity: The New Tobacco" and "The Elephant in the Exam Room."

Health Affairs is adding its voice to a growing (so to speak) chorus of voices on this issue. Efforts to understand and conquer obesity are the new black.

For example, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has just announced that it plans to collaborate with the Dell Children’s Medical Center to launch the Texas Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity, a "unique center" aimed at helping families deal with obesity-related health issues.

A press release says that the Center will offer "not only clinical treatment, but also community engagement and advocacy to fight childhood obesity both at the individual and community level." But if obesity is a child-abuse issue involving parental decision-making and cultural misdeeds, as Health Affairs concludes, would it be more useful to frame it first and foremost as a overarching social problem, not one confined to the confidentiality of the doctor's office?

A good illustration of this point is offered by one of the Health Affairs articles, "Trends in Snacking Among US Children," which finds that children are snacking more and more, heading toward a "constant eating" status.

Children now average 27 percent of their calories from snacks and are taking in some 113 more calories per day now than they did a decade ago. This statistic illustrates that we need a cultural sea change more than a series of individual treatment plans for those in trouble — though of course all interventions combined would be ideal.

But how would such a sea change occur? Should we criminalize bad-for-you foods as tools of child abuse? Are we really ready to call parents who supply their kids unhealthy snacks abusive or neglectful?

Photo by somegeekintn via Flickr

Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations.
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