Strollerderby
Mom Arrested for Having 555 Pound Son
This story is not to be confused with the one Madeline brought us, about the 550 pound woman who gave birth recently.
14-year-old Alexander Deundray Draper of South Carolina had been on the run with his mother, Jerri Althea Gray. Gray had been told by a family court judge to turn her son over to the state because they determined that he “was of the weight where
it was decided by medical authorities that he needed treatment that was
not being provided for by his mother.”
That weight is 555 pounds.
According to CNN, the mother did not appear in court as ordered, “and has concealed the child.”
It’s one thing to be a little on the chunky side. But when your child is this heavy, clearly some enabling is going on. Barring some bizarre medical condition I’m unaware of, it doesn’t seem possible for someone to reach 555 pounds at any age, much less 14, without a diet of nothing but unhealthy food. Hopefully everyone involved in this case will get the help that they need.
Source: CNN
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8 Comments
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWow, 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.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amCan we really say they were on the *run*?
Knitty commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI 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.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amOops, 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).
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amUnfortunately, 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!)
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amEver 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.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI’m sure if you fed this kid GOOD food in huge amounts, he’d be fat too….
diera commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWell, *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.
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