How To Stop Childhood Overweight/Obesity – Part II
By
Michael Applebaum, MD, JD, FCLM
Virtually
everybody’s
talking about it.
Virtually
no
one is doing anything about it.
Talk,
talk, talk with a couple of yadda, yaddas added for good measure.
In
Part II of “How To Stop Childhood Overweight/Obesity,” I will explain a fun
way to halt these epidemics.
Part
I appears as “For The Kids,” an earlier and still available rant.
What is more fun than schadenfreude?
Nothing.
Schadenfreude
is “pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune.”
It
is the stuff of slapstick.
Think
Three Stooges.
And
schadenfreude gets even better when the “someone else” is harmful or a
law-breaker. This moves schadenfreude into the domain of “just desserts.”
Who
doesn’t like seeing someone else getting what they deserve?
No one.
Virtually
every state has laws against child abuse. Generally these are patterned after
the federal government’s Child Abuse Protection and Treatment Act or CAPTA.
Nutritional
child abuse is usually included in the ways kids can be abused. Picture
starvation as being at one end of the spectrum and overweight/obesity at the
other.
As
part of these laws, there are "mandatory reporters.
Mandatory
reporters are certain persons obligated to report child abuse to the authorities
and if they don’t they are in violation of the law.
Mandatory
reporters usually include clergy, sick care workers (e.g., physicians, nurses)
and school employees (e.g., teachers, principals).
Here
is how to have fun.
Next time you go to a house of worship, pediatrician’s office or school, take
note if there are any overweight/obese children.
You
don’t have to know their names.
Just
document when (date, time) and where and who (doctor, teacher).
Then call social services in your locality and tell them that on (date, time) you were at (such and such place), saw a nutritionally abused child and wondered if the (doctor, teacher) reported it to social services. Offer the picture, if you have one.
Make sure you get the name of the person to whom you spoke and ask them to follow-up with you. If they say they cannot, ask to speak with a supervisor. Get the supervisor's name. Ask the supervisor to follow-up with you. Explain you are worried and you do not want to have a possibly law-breaking, unconcerned, irresponsible, etc., doctor or clergy or teacher involved in your child's life.
Irresponsibility is a slippery slope.
After all, if they are law-breakers in this aspect of child well-being, who knows of what they are capable? It is a shuddering thought. Will they call the cops if they see your kid being beaten up? Or talking to a stranger who hangs around the school, house of worship or pediatric clinic?
Tell
all your friends to do the same when their opportunity arises.
Then
sit back and wait.
Eventually
a critical mass of calls will prompt some action.
Once
the action starts, the media will pick-up on it and really get the ball rolling.
(You could go to the media first and work the system backwards so social
services is embarrassed into action. Your choice.)
Once
the action starts, enjoy.
Have
fun!
Remember
you are doing good at the same time.