Anyone see the 15stone fat kid on ITV?

[Wriggle2007]

Hideous and only 8 years old. I blame the mother for giving in to his demands (anyone see the fag hanging out of her mouth as she cooked his dinner?).

Instead of giving kids all they want such as food, money, letting them travel across the atlantic in a boat, they need to install some good old fashioned discipline and get them working hard at school and doing chores at home.

[WendyS]

It's not the kids who should be going to school.
It's the parents. They obviously didn't pick up much education from their first time there.

[ll_billym]

I didn't see it. Was it filmed in widescreen?

[littleoldme]

I'm afraid his mum was typical of the "well it's not my fault" mindset that parents like her have.

"Someone should have stepped in when he was two and a half and getting a bit heavy". Yes, someone should have. His mum.

[joko]

my friend is 38 and her 10 year old was begging her - yes begging her - for another slice of melon!! - she kept saying no and to finish his bottle of coke!!
she said he'd had a piece, and melons cost her money!

i could not believe my ears and felt like telling her off.
i did mention it but she seemed oblivious to my point

(this was when i hadn't known her long so i didn't want to say much)

i realise now she is just not very bright, but really nice. its shame that things like this aren't taught in schools

[netibiza]

Actually travelling across the Atlantic in a boat, sounds a pretty good idea to me. Chuck all the problem kids in a boat and sent em orf. Pick them up 15yrs later on the other side of the world!

[libertie]

This boy's mum clearly had her own issues to deal with and therefore was struggling to cope with her childs problems! I personally feel that intervention by the social services can only be a good thing....for all the family! At the end of the programme the mother clearly stated that she was mostly to blame for her child's weight problem and would welcome some help! Whether she is able to stick with her resolve is another thing!!

[anotheoldgit]

What I did notice was, this childs identity was filmed for all to see, just imagine the bulling he will receive such as yeh ! we saw you on telly you fat b**t**d.

If he had been a vanderlising, graffiti daubing yobbo, he would have had his face obscured to protect his privacy.

[Noseyparker]

I was just about to make the same point about privacy for underage troublemakers. Perhaps he is very unhappy. I've been in a job I absolutely love for the past 10 months and I have lost half a atone in that time without even thinkinng about it. Didn't I also read somewhere that he had begun to lose weight so maybe he needs to be given a chance - and a hug.

[libertie]

Don't think the programme was making out that the child was a troublemaker or a problem child, it was simply pointing out that he was in fact being fed to death by his mother!! I assume that...rightly or wrongly...his mother gave permission for him to be identified, and yes he had lost almost a stone since before christmas!

[anotheoldgit]

Just because he is only 8 years old does he not have any rights of his own?

[sandbach99]

I saw this programme and whilst I agree he is eating too much of the wrong food I was disturbed to see the Social Services were going for a care order before he is to see a specialist in hormonal imbalance.

The boy is 8, he is 5 ft 1in, he was shown against two other 8 year old boys, he was at least a head if not head and shoulders taller than them, that is not due to excess food.
He was also shown as a fairly new born baby certainly before he was on solid food and he was a very fat baby.

The programme repeatedly showed him bouncing on an outdoor trampoline without a safety net and this can be more dangerous than overeating.

The mother has clinical depression and doesn't appear to be receiving any effective treatment, the child doesn't appear to have been tested for an illness and is now liable to be bullied as said previously, very one sided programme based purely on food intake.

[Bohne]

The child 'is now liable to be bullied'

You think nobody noticed he was fat before the show, and made fun of it???
A lot you seem to know about children's minds!

[Karen2005]

"Instead of giving kids all they want such as food, money, letting them travel across the atlantic in a boat they need to install some good old fashioned discipline"

I take you are refering to Michael Perham who is the youngest person to sail the Atlantic single-handed? I would say that takes an enormous amount of discipline...