Running on Empty – Child Obesity and FII

Recent reports from the United Kingdom reveal hundreds of toddlers under three hospitalized with obesity. During the past five years forty babies under one were admitted to hospital for childhood obesity, with children obese, as young as six, suffering from strokes. Children under one have weighed as much as 19 kilos. The diets that these children are on are not nutritious or healthy – food includes pureed takeaway chips, and mashed fast food products, together with crisps, soda drinks and chocolate. see article

In March 2011, in Canada, Ministers have launched a national dialogue to deal with childhood obesity and identify ways to promote healthier lifestyles for kids: article

With more than one in four Canadian children overweight or obese, the problem would appear to be urgent, yet it seems that the intended initiatives sound drearily like those now in place to help children to overcome substance abuse and addiction to illicit drugs – initiatives that whilst well intended fail to hit the mark.

Clearly with infants the cause of obesity is being overfed on junk food by their parents. It seems highly unlikely in this day and age, that parents don’t know what good food is, the problem is that they lack the enthusiasm required to fully support and nurture their children – parents act compulsively when overfeeding their children. They need to take responsibility, and take control of their lifestyle. Filling up children on empty carbs leads to poor health and related problems. When children are obese and running on empty it amounts to child abuse.

Food is a nutrient, but at a symbolic level it represents love and nurturing, between the parent and child. Overfeeding a child until they become morbidly obese would appear to be a form of compulsive acting out by the caregiver, and signifies aggression. In every case of infant obesity there will be found, just as with anorexia, extremely dysfunctional family dynamics. Parents do not over feed children in ignorance – they are in denial about feelings of hostility and rage that they have in general and that they direct onto their children.

Obese children who also don’t move or exercise thereby become less active and less demanding upon their parents.

Children hospitalised for obesity are only the tip of an iceberg - many parents see their children suffering from obesity, and do nothing for them. Parents with children morbidly obese are in fact content. In many cases the parents themselves use food abusively and aggressively against themselves and are similarly obese.

The craving for food, like a craving for drugs, is a means to create relief from inner stress and tension. The more unfit the person becomes, the more reliant they become on their “fix”. The same dynamics apply whether people are addicted to drugs, or are addicted to food. The same principles will apply to bring about rehabilitation and recovery.

Traditional methods for addiction recovery don’t have a handle on drug use, nor would it appear that they understand that it is only the same dynamics in place, when it is food that is being used.

We don’t have an epidemic disease of drug use, nor do we have epidemic diseases of obesity or anorexia – what we have is a society full of unhappy people who feel frustrated, depressed and anxious, who use drugs and food as a tool, a weapon, if you like, to assert mastery and power over feelings of entrapment and powerlessness.

There is a syndrome called Munschhausen’s Disease - a psychological disorder, in which a person somatizes their misery, and frequently calls at the doctors with what appears to be hypochondria. A variant of this condition is called Munchhausen’s by proxy, in which the parent in need of emotional help keeps taking their child to the doctor, with various symptoms of illness.

Infant obesity and Munschhausen’s sydrome have very much in common in terms of the utility of the “illness” for the parent who feels emotionally isolated to receive personal attention from authority figures, and receive emotional support.

The new name for Munchausen’s syndrome is FII – fabricated and induced illness - that can include extreme obesity.

Symptoms used to gain attention by people with FII include breathlessness, allegic reactions, diarrhea and vomiting, seizures, abominal pain and blackouts. see report

Overfeeding a child on poor quality food such that they become in need of care, could be a type of FII. People need emotional counseling and help – not a shopping list.

Many people today, parents, children and those addicted to food or drugs are running on empty emotionally and don’t know which way to turn.

Today in Canada there are highly successful alcohol and drug addiction recovery centers that know what addiction is all about, that can get people fully recovered from addiction, become completely drug free and healthy.

Comprehensive drug and alcohol centers use sauna treatments and healthy food as part of drug detox, and rehabilitation is assisted by a set of mind and emotional development courses, based on the Way to Happiness, that enables people to change their ways of thinking and give up their addiction.

Families where obesity is a problem would benefit from the methods used by comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction recovery centers to get themselves back on their feet.

While government agencies continue to ponder about ways to help obese people to eat better food – we could be better off using natural, comprehensive addiction recovery methods that can help people, parents and children recover from and overcome unhealthy addiction to food.