Today on Dr. Phil-Overweight Children

[anniet]

Did anybody see this today? The first woman with the eight year old daughter made me want to throw a rock at my TV. Her daughter is 8 weighs 125 pounds and when other children call her a fat stupid pig, her mother agrees with them! I was out of my mind listening to this woman. She kept trying to justify her degrading of her daughter by saying she was trying to make her child take responsibility for her actions! I could have screamed.

Now I don't have children but I am a very involved Aunt. When my niece turned 5 my sister called me in tears because at her physical the dr. told my sister my niece was 20 pounds overweight. Throughout the year my sister (and everyone else in our family) tried to teach my niece about choices....healthy choices and not so healthy choices. In a year she lost 5 pounds (even though the goal was just to get her to maintain) And she grew 2 1/2 inches, all while my sister and everyone else in our family reiterated that we loved her, and want her to be healthy. She's almost 7 now and makes really good choices when left to her own instincts (at school, etc) and while she isn't "skinny" she's at a healthier weight

Now, like I said, I don't have children, so nobody values my opinions on raising them because "I couldn't possibly know" but this woman infuriated me!

Did anyone else see the show?

What did you think?

 

[snoopy]

You don't have to have children to know that is wrong.

I'm glad I didn't see this show, it makes me sick just hearing you relay the story.

How wonderful for your niece, though, that her mother taught her healthy eating habits without having to berate her.

 

[nuke]

I seriously don't think that first mom "Got" it. I was very sad listening to her talk about her daughter. She didn't even blink an eye when her daughter was saying how bad the kids made her feel. If my child said that, I would have been in tears with him.

 

[MosMom]

It was AWFUL and it was bordering on verbal abuse. Just because you're heavy doesn't mean you are stupid and her mother ADMITTED that she calls her stupid and she didn't seem all that upset with herself. Dr. Phil tried to get it through to her that it was unacceptable behavior but she argued with him the entire segment. He made several comments about letting him talk.

She said that she withholds affection and isn't loving towards her because she finds it hard to be affectionate to a child with a disability. Well, I hope this woman gets her tubes tied because God forbid she has another "disabled" child. She was an awful woman and I won't be surprised if Dr. Phil gets a lot of hate mail about her.

Where was her mother when her daughter started to develop a weight problem? The girl is only 8 years old! Who is buying the sweets that the child is sneaking? Where is HER responsibility in the fact that her daughter is overweight?

The girl wasn't THAT overweight (that she couldn't become physically active) and the mom said she won't enroll her in gymnastics or physical activities because she is too fat. Well, if the mother will not HELP her daughter by helping her to become physically active and to make better food choices then she has nothing to complain about.

If this little girl doesn't end up bulemic I would be surprised. I felt so bad for her. They showed a clip of her crying and you could just see the pain in her face. Just awful.

 

[Kermit]

I didn't see it, but it sounds horrible. I think that it's abusive enough to air your problems on TV like that. That little girl doesn't need the whole world to know that her mom thinks she's fat.

 

[nancy679]

I saw the show and I agree with Mosmom. That little girl did not get heavy on her own. Her mother buys the food. And the fact that she denied her gymnastic is crazy. How is she supposed to maintain a healthy weight if she is not encouraged to eat healthy and excerise. Maybe the mom had been raised in such a manner herself. It was very sad. She seemed very cold even hearing how sad her daughter was.

 

[LvsTnk]

Having a child that is overweight is sooo hard to get a handle on. My son was overweight and I was at my wits end even had a hard time with the pediatrician helping me. I turned to my sister who is obese and was treated by my mother how this little girl was treated. I didn't want to put her through any unpleasant feelings so this was a last resort.

She told me to flat out stop talking about it. She knew we had healthy food in our house, but sometimes you can't control what they get elswhere or the fact that he would just keep eating and eating. Sports were hard because he wasn't that good at it and it caused more teasing.

We switched his school...everyone played no matter what....making fun of was not allowed. We also never talked about food or made it an issue. He is fine now, when people see him they can't believe it

I hope that child can find her way

 

[shortbun]

I saw it. I think Dr. Phil did what he
could on TV-he obviously wanted to do
and say more. The one thing he didn't
do was tell the mom to get her
daughter in a gymnastics class!
She was very confused and had
obviously not seen clearly what she
was doing to her daughter. I'm glad
he asked her to watch the tape "100 times".
I wonder if it's possible to undo the
years of abuse this little girl has
endured?

 

[Mermaid02]

I hope other family members see the show and slap the woman upside the head! What an EVIL woman.... there's a special place in hell for people like her.

 

[zurgswife]

Darn...I haven't been able to find Dr. Phil in our local area....

 

[Pugsley]

Oh, my blood was boiling watching that! My sister just called me (as I was reading this thread) to ask me what I thought of it. We both wished that child could be taken away from her. What an evil person. And she seemed to be very impressed with herself. She probably just wanted to be on TV because she thinks she's so cute. She didn't even listen to Dr. Phil… just wanted to run her stupid mouth.

 

[anniet]

Zurg's wife it's on CBS up here, so check your local listing. It's on around 4:00 although, I know the time can vary, I don't think the network would, and since it's a major network I would imagine it's showing everywhere???......

 

[December99]

My mom use to treat me that way when I was little...she would call me fat, lazy and no good. I was overweight when I was a child and am still but I had lost 50 pounds between my sophmore and junior years (yes most of it in the less than 3 months that we were out of school and the rest during volleyball that year). Come to find out I was probably starving myself. And alot of it came because of the way my family treated me and my weight.

My dd is overweight and I have been very concerned about it but the pediatrician tells me not to deal with it. If and when she is ready to deal with it (dd) she needs to tell me. And until she is totally uncomfortable with it - I'm not to push the issue. I do make sure she has heathly things to eat, we do eat fairly healthy so I'm not concerned that she isn't getting all the right nutrients. I just try to not verbally abuse her regarding her weight!