Spread your wings and fly away

Cooking lamb with roasted vegetables for tea tonight.

Youngest comes downstairs.

"mmmmm" he says, "That smells nice."

"Good"says I, "because it is dinner and you will eat it.

(I added this as he is a fussy eater which I do not give into)

"I said it smells nice" he says "I didn't say anything about eating it did I?"

Oh well here we go again.

On the news and on the BBC website as follows:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6396457.stm

An eight-year-old boy who weighs over 14 stone (89kg) may be taken into care by a local authority.

Connor McCreaddie, from Wallsend, North Tyneside, has lost a stone and a half in two months, but still prefers processed food to fruit and vegetables.

His mother, Nicola McKeown, has been called to a child protection conference with the local authority on Tuesday.

Family support may be offered, but the last resort would be for North Tyneside officials to place Connor into care.

Connor's pre-Christmas weight of 15 stones and eight pounds (98.8kg) is four times the weight of a healthy child of his age.

He has lost weight after beginning an intensive exercise regime and introducing some healthy food into his diet.

The eight-year-old does have a bike and a trampoline which he uses, but he has to stop after around 10 minutes because he becomes out of breath and can vomit.

He has difficulty dressing and washing himself, misses school regularly because of poor health and is a target for bullies.

Ms McKeown, 35, told the BBC: "Connor had a mouthful of apple once and he didn't like it.

"He refuses to eat fruit, vegetables and salads - he has processed foods.

"When Connor won't eat anything else, I've got to give him the foods he likes.

"I can't starve him.

"But I'm confident I can get his weight down with a bit of help."

Ms McKeown denied she is neglecting her son, and said he would be "skinny" if she had been.

She said she had seen doctors, but no-one had actually stepped in to offer her help.

She said that taking Connor into care would be "disastrous".

His story will be featured in ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald, which followed Connor and his mother for a month.

Dr Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said that removing a child from their family could be justified.

"The long-term impacts of this child's gross obesity are frightening.

"He has great risk of diabetes and coronary illness.

"His life expectancy is severely prejudiced. So action is required if his health is to be safeguarded."

A spokeswoman for North Tyneside Council and North Tyneside Primary Care Trust, said: "We share the concerns over the child's health and well-being.

"We have been working with the family over a prolonged period of time and will continue to do so.

"The child's interests are paramount."

Children learn their eating habits from those around them, i.e. parents. Unless there is a medical reason why the child is this big, then surely the mother must take responsibility for this? We all have hectic lives, we all don't have enough time to do things as a family but we try our best yet it is worrying that more and more children are being classed as 'clinically obese'.

It is worrying.

who stole it from cj who stole it from.......

Oh you get the picture!

1) Grab the closest book to you.
2) Open to page 123, go down to the 4th sentence.
3) Post the text of the following 3 sentences on your blog.

McDermott hums occasionally or lies back and looks at the sky. He lights one cigarette and then another. The man smokes a lot.

Hmm must get round to reading book!

Yes Monday has dawned again.

Here the sun is rising and it promises to be a good day.

Mood a little better, thanks for all your comments yesterday, it helped a lot.

So news today as I woke and they were going on about how to cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze and cough - really? Do we need to be told that? Thought it was something we were always taught to do.

Mind you have seen people who don't and quite frankly it turns my stomach as well as those people who tend to try and clear their nose in the streets or spit.

That is one thing I do get annoyed at with footballers, the amount of them that spit when they are playing, it turns my stomach everytime.

No doubt I will be told there is a very good reason for this, but when it is then transferred onto the streets, yuck - and they wonder why infections spread.

Right enough rambling on about nothing in particular, better get myself sorted to face the day. I don't start till 11, so hopting to get a little housework done and my exercises as well.

Have a good and Happy Monday.