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I'm sure if some board members are consistent in their thinking, they probably think they should kill the bitch.

AAwwwww well - I've got mixed emotions about this....see
my mother always cooked healthy stuff as an attempt to keep us from being overweight.....I was a closet junk food junkie!!

If the mother makes no attempt to feed her kid healthy stuff - she is abusing him in some way.

That's a tough issue there. I mean its obvious to know what to do when a child is malnurished and underfed. But this is completely opposite. True, she is not teaching him moderation and self discipline. The mom is allowing him to believe that you should always eat what you want when you want. But is that abusive? I don't think it is her intent to feed him til he dies of a heart attack. With the "state" making sure he is seen by a doctor regularly, should be the limit to their intervention. My mother did not teach me the proper way to eat, among other things, but that alone did not constitute abuse. 200lbs is HUGE for an 8 year old, but did you see how tall he was? Yes, I agree, he is headed to an unhealthy demise in the recent future if not given healthy foods. But forcing a child to eat IS abusive. Not feeding a child until they finish the last green bean, etc, is not helpful either.
This is a tough one and I think as this WILL become an epidemic, should be handled on a case-by-case basis. In conclusion (lol) in this story (of which I know very little of the minor details) I think she is not neglecting her son.

I'm glad the boy got to stay with mom. Particularly since, as usual, the media only gives us the shockingest parts of the story.

I'm more glad of it because...*shudder*...imagine the precedent? People (especially kids) are already under enough pressure for their bodies to be a certain weight and shape. Can you imagine if we all had to be concerned with our kids getting fat enough to be removed from our homes? When would THAT horror begin, and how far would it go? Is 50 lbs overweight enough to qualify as abuse? What about the waiflike children with hyperdrive metabolisms that eat nothing but junk food? Is that abuse too?

Nuts.