Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

Ron — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:31:16 GMT

Wow, this is terrible. A mom having to deal with thie "deseased" child now has to go to jail for something that is ridiculious. The things that happen in this world today are stunning.

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re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

JenC — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:35:11 GMT

Can we really say they were on the *run*?

re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

Knitty — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:40:32 GMT

I wonder if he has Prader-Willi syndrome? I recently met a mother whose child has it. Although her kid is relatively slender, that's only because she keeps him on a *very* low-calorie diet, something like 800 calories a day coupled with intensive exercise programs. Kids with PWS have slow metabolisms and low muscle tone along with an insatiable hunger, it's a cruel combination.

I can't believe this mother was arrested. She needs help with his medical problems, not a stint in jail.

re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

cyndiego — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:52:10 GMT

Oops, you have to click my name for the link. Here's another example of leptin therapy with this comment (click cyndiego). That said, I'm sure the kid can be helped somehow by better medical treatment -- but it's probably unfair to blame the mom, unless she has been actively fighting a doctor's recommendations (ala the anti-chemo mom).

re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

cyndiego — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:32:34 GMT

Unfortunately, there ABSOLUTELY are medical conditions that can cause this level of obesity in spite of careful parenting and medical attention. One rare example is leptin deficiency -- people can be mutant for an important satiety signaling molecule, thus their brains think they are always starving. These people, luckily, can be treated, see for example the pubmed link. And, as diera said, this level of obesity is practically a guarantee that there's an underlying condition. (I've spent the last few days trying to force some food into MY sick baby, and I can tell you, when they don't feel hungry, they don't eat!)

re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

Shana — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:45:20 GMT

Ever see Fat Pets on Animal Planet (it may have been Discovery Channel though)? It featured one woman who had a Rotweiller that was the size of about three put together. She talked about how she gave the dog everything and anything it wanted because she had no children to do that for. The woman (and her husband) that were living on the dole spent something insane like sixty pounds a day on meat for the dog!

Now onto humans doing this with their kids. There have been quite a few episodes of Oprah dealing with this. Most of the time the underlying medical issue is a psychological issue with either the parent or the kid. Just as it is physically possible for an adult to get to that size it is possible for a teen to do so also.

re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

Sheri — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:35:46 GMT

I'm sure if you fed this kid GOOD food in huge amounts, he'd be fat too....

re: Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son

diera — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:46:50 GMT

Well, *obviously* this kid has some kind of medical condition. If you fed a normal kid nothing but Pop-tarts washed down with soda, you might wind up with an unhealthy kid who was somewhat overweight but you're not going to wind up with a 500-pound kid. That doesn't necessarily excuse his mother, since I have no idea if she's trying to get him appropriate treatment or not, but there's no way this is just bad parenting.