Though Connor McCreaddie is only an eight-year-old boy, his sheer size has
turned him into a demolition man. At 14 stone, and with a boy’s abandon, he
has broken four beds, six lavatory seats and five bicycles. And he’s still
got a lot of growing to do.
His obesity and lack of fitness mean he has difficulty walking. Sometimes he
cannot even manage the seven-minute stroll to school, leading to a poor
attendance record and missed education.
Connor’s diet, by his mother’s admission, is appalling. Although he is cutting
back on junk food, until recently he was eating four packets of crisps a
day, and it was typical for him to consume four Yorkshire puddings with his
evening meal and demand snacks every 20 minutes.
The stakes are high for his health and education; now they are about to get
even higher for his family.
On Tuesday, Connor, his mother and grandmother will attend a “child protection
conference” at North Tyneside council in Wallsend, near Newcastle upon Tyne,
to decide Connor’s fate.
Two specialist obesity nurses, a consultant paediatrician, the deputy head
teacher of Connor’s school, a police officer, and at least two social
workers are expected to be present.
They will weigh questions with wide-ranging implications for the growing army
of obese children in Britain: is Connor a victim of abuse? Should he be
placed on the child protection register or taken into care?
Connor’s case is one of the first of its kind, but illustrates what doctors
say is going to become a much broader trend.
The number of children aged under 11 who are obese leapt from 9.9% in 1995 to
13.4% in 2004. Doctors warn that signs of heart disease and rates of type 2
diabetes, which previously affected only adults, are soaring in obese
youngsters.
As a result politicians are pushing for earlier intervention and, in extreme
cases, this could mean children being taken away from their parents.
Dr Alyson Hall, consultant child psychiatrist at the Emanuel Miller Centre for
Families and Children in east London, says that, in extreme cases, obese
children need to be taken into foster care to ensure their safety.
“I have known instances where local authorities have had to consider placement
outside the family. It has been voluntary so far, and has not gone to care
proceedings, but that could happen,” she said.
“These are children suffering from sleep apnoea and serious health
complications from diabetes. Initially, social workers try to help the
parents but, in some cases, the parents are the problem.”
Parents can no longer claim they are unaware of the dangers: they have long
been warned about childhood obesity. The wake-up call about the seriousness
of the epidemic came three years ago when Sir John Krebs, then the chairman
of the Food Standards Agency, said that poor diet and lack of exercise among
today’s youngsters would lead to them having a lower life expectancy than
their parents for the first time in more than a century.
Although statistics had pointed to the obesity timebomb, the spectre of life
expectancy falling focused the nation’s attention on the problem.
Since then there have been reams of reports and statistics charting the annual
rises in the number of obese children. The House of Commons health select
committee, the British Medical Association, the Department of Health and the
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) have all
produced their own documents outlining the crisis and offering
recommendations on how to address it.
Celebrities brought the message home to a wide audience. Jamie Oliver, the TV
chef, captured the nation’s imagination in his attempt to transform school
meals. For parents, however, the task of preventing their children from
becoming obese remains tough. Many were themselves brought up on a poor diet
and never learnt to cook properly.
Connor’s mother, Nicola McKeown, admits she finds it difficult to ensure her
son eats healthily.
“I need some support so that I can help Connor, because I am working blind,”
she said. “Yes, I know what are the right and the wrong foods to eat, the
fattening and nonfattening foods, but Connor doesn’t like fruit or
vegetables and he won’t touch salads.
“We have only just got Connor off processed foods such as sausages and burgers
and to start eating meat and poultry, but it is very difficult because we
are limited to what he likes.
“He likes chips and mashed potatoes and all the wrong foods. I am trying to
introduce healthier foods to his diet but he refuses to eat 90% of them.”
WHERE responsibility lies and whether the state should intervene is a delicate
area. But the signs are that the authorities are growing more inclined to
take action.
Last month two brothers in Cambridgeshire were convicted of causing
unnecessary suffering by letting their dog become obese. The labrador,
Rusty, grew to 11 stone, more than double the weight he should have been,
and could hardly stand.
The brothers were given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £250 each
towards the cost of the prosecution by the RSPCA, which had taken the dog
into its care.
Children are not dogs, but the incident left many health experts asking
whether the parents of obese children should face similar sanctions.
Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, a charity dealing with
obesity, said: “Parents should be held to account. Allowing such obesity is
child abuse. We wouldn’t treat a dog this way.”
Dr Tom Solomon, a doctor at Royal Liverpool University hospital with an
interest in obesity, said: “The state intervenes with schooling. Parents who
do not send their children to school are prosecuted eventually. To be badly
educated is not dangerous, but we are making our children diabetic, and even
killing our children by our feeding habits.”
But others insist taking obese children into care because parents fail to make
them lose weight can never be justified.
Ian Johnston, director of the British Association of Social Workers, says that
before child protection measures are taken there would need to be convincing
evidence that the parents were to blame.
“We are dealing, at times, with quite difficult situations such as parents who
are not coping with their kids and kids who are making nocturnal trips to
the fridge to help themselves,” he said.
“Obesity can often be linked to poverty. In the case of obese children, social
workers would intervene in the same way as if someone was undernourished,
but it would depend on robust medical evidence to justify such action.”
The health risks faced by obese children are undeniable. According to the
report on childhood obesity by the health select committee, obesity will
soon surpass smoking as the greatest cause of premature loss of life. Obese
children run a high risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, kidney
failure and arthritis. The committee of MPs estimated that the cost of
treating overweight and obese patients is at least £7 billion a year.
The Department of Health has recognised the need for children to form healthy
habits from birth and has announced “supernannies” to give intensive help to
vulnerable women during pregnancy and after childbirth.
The Food Standards Agency is at war with some supermarkets and food
manufacturers over placing clear labelling detailing levels of fat, sugar
and salt content on packaging.
Last week Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, published rules banning adverts for
food and drink high in fat, salt, and sugar from programmes aimed at
children.
But all these initiatives come too late for Connor and thousands of other
children who are already obese. As his mother and grandmother prepare for
Tuesday’s child protection conference, they are reflecting on who is
to blame for Connor’s obesity, and fearful of the outcome.
Connor’s grandmother, Barbara Bake, admits that her daughter could have done
more to prevent him from piling on the pounds, but says her ability to
refuse his constant demands for food was hindered by the depression she has
suffered.
Bake says her daughter used to buy carry-out meals twice a week but has cut
down recently and made other improvements to Connor’s diet. Bake says she
has thrown out her daughter’s deep fat fryer and bought hera steamer.
Bake also claims the National Health Service has let Connor down. She would
like Connor to be seen by the region’s leading paediatrician and for tests
to establish whether a food intolerance or hormonal problems have
contributed to her grandson’s size.
She said: “I have been asking for Connor to have an appointment with the
leading child obesity specialist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in
Newcastle. I want him to have body scans, diabetes tests, food allergy tests
and thyroid tests.”
The NHS, however, says Connor’s mother has failed to address her son’s obesity
by missing numerous appointments with health workers.
THIS weekend Connor’s mother was nervous about what will happen at Tuesday’s
hearing.
She cannot bear the thought of Connor being taken into care, and is
desperately hoping that the panel will be able to come up with a solution to
her son’s weight.
McKeown said: “I am very anxious because I have never been through this
before. I do not know what I am walking into. If Connor gets taken into care
that is the worst scenario there could be.
“Hopefully, we will be able to come up with a good plan and he might just be
put on the at-risk register. That wouldn’t be so bad because there would be
help at the end of it.
“I just couldn’t imagine what it would be like if the outcome was worse than
that.”
Connor’s story will be told in Tonight with Trevor McDonald, tomorrow at
8pm on ITV1
What he eats
Connor's diet has improved but until recently he was eating:
- Coco Pops for breakfast
- 11am snack of toast and turkey ham
- Processed food including sausages and burgers
- Lots of deep-fried food including chips
- Two carry-out meals a week
- Dinners with four Yorkshire puddings
- Four packets of Walkers crisps a day
- Biscuits and other snacks every 20 minutes
- Connor's mum says he refuses to eat fruit and vegetables and will not go
near salad
