The 400 pound 7 year old

Anyone heard about this?

At age 5, she was 200 pounds. at age 7, she doubled to 400.

What boggles my mind–HOW the parents let her get to this stage?
She did not have any disease, this was simply poor diet and lack of education about nutrition…just taken to the extreme!!

How does a parent let it get this far? She was rushed to an ER b/c she had trouble breathing and was only then taken to an obesity clinic thanks to a court-order.
She’s now 10 or so and has lost 300+ pounds without surgery, BUT still needs surgery to remove hte excess skin. She also has to undergo extensive physical therapy because her legs were ruined thanks to the excess weight.

So why does this bother me–I consider this child abuse.

She had no disease, nothing, her parents just gave in to her tantrums. I know eVery parent feels like giving into tantrums sometimes, and fat kids are cute…but this is just an extreme

Here are the videos:

UPDATE: 400 pound 7 year old Jessica

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

that is horrific!! those parents should be tried for negligence and child abuse.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

Yes, horriffic! My goodness. The parents are at fault here. And so is the school. In our district, the social worker and school psychologist would have been called in and actions taken long before things got to that point.

The parents of this girl are likely getting all kinds of threats, the girls location is secret and the parents are no where to be seen in the reports.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

Shocking. It's not a good sign though that she still has a food addiction. Wait a few years when her mother has not control over her, then there is a grave danger that she will lapse back into it.

I blame the parents, a child is a child, not old enough to know better. They allowed her to think it was normal and fed her the stuff.

I think the parents, or at least the mother, was shown int eh second or third video..the mother herself is quite overweight, which isn't as alarming as how they let their duaghter become that.....and its such a shame because she is really a pretty little girl...i dont think she's evr going to be "normal"...its like starving or a child drinking/doing drugs...once the damage is done, it cant be reversed....

Disturbing.

How can parents be so ignorant.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

Truly saddening. :(

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I am no racist by I was not surprised when I heard the southern accent. Too much gravy and fried chicken I say.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

You know, I was going to mention this too. I think the gal is from the appalachia area of the deep south where health problems abound and parents have no insurance and kids many times dont even attend school.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

I've seen plenty of chubby/fat non-white kids (then again I am in an area that is heavily black and hispanic). This is just one extreme.

At age 5 I weighed 80 pounds and was 57 inches. :(

even at this age i dont weigh 80 pounds lol
no offence to u

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

:eek: :eek:
:frowning:

I saw this report on TV several weeks ago and am shocked how easily u guys are blaming the parents without knowing the fact behind it.

If I remember right, this girl has a genetic disorder that doesnt tell her that she is full .. so that she can eat and eat till there is no end .. she is never fully satisfied and feels hugry all times and can be aggressive if she doesnt get the food ... some rare case of this disease are in this world, there was even a girl in India with this disorder who would beg from her neighbors if she didnt get enough at home.

I saw the girl literally rocking the fridge as the mother put chains on the door to stop her from opening it.

Its easy to blame the parents but sometimes some conditions can only be solved with help of professional or medicine / treatment.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

^reminds me of another incident where they arrested the mum when her child was underweight because of some eating disorder.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

SaadiaB, I may have missed ti but none of the videos I saw or posted mentioned anything about a medical disorder regarding this girl.

Hareem, I recall Mamaof3 posting about that a few times. In that case I think there was a genuine medical issue, and she was treated unfairly......

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

OK, the genetic disorder that causes insatiable hunger is called Prader Willi syndrome. In these cases, there are distinctive symptoms which the girl above does not have. I'm not positive that she doesnt have it but it doesnt look like it at all....and dont you think it would have been mentioned? Because those who suffer from this do not get much benefit from behavioral therapy and must be on medications which is not mentioned in any of the reports. The girl was taught to eat healthy and she can and has been complying. Prader willi kids cannot. The mother in the 2nd video above was talking about how she is learning herself about nutrition and that she didnt think she was putting her daughters life in danger!!! What the HECK!!!

And yes, I was in contact with the girl who was arrested for starving her son who suffered from lissencephaly. That genetic disorder involves an improperly formed brain and the inability of the body to process and absorb food. Children with this generally live only a year or 2 but this mom got her son to live more than 4 years, only to be tossed in jail and vilified on national TV during the last weeks of her son's life. It was a truly gut-wrenching story.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

I was munching on some nuts and raisins when I opened this thread... needless to say I stopped eating.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

^ i dont think ure in danger of getting to that point funguy.

This is because you are not shown the whole video .. a part where the girl is banging on the fridge door to get to food.
The report I saw mentioned that she had a medical problem.

Re: The 400 pound 7 year old

this is crazy:bummer: