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For some overweight children, eating may be linked with depression. Learn the signs of depression eating and what parents can do to help.
If you know what to look for, you can probably spot the signs of depression and eating-related issues. Your daughter, who used to run to the playground after school, now prefers to sit in front of the television with her hand in a bowl of potato chips. Your son, a former soccer player, gorges on soda and cheese curls before burrowing into his room behind a closed door, playing video games until suppertime.
Or maybe friends don't call as they used to, and your child seems to go around the house with worried, downcast eyes. Yet when you ask if something's wrong, you get a monotonous, "I'm fine."
If a scene like this seems familiar, it may be time to take action. Overeating can be a symptom of depression. And being overweight can cause child depression if weight leads to feelings of loneliness, isolation, or poor self-esteem. But parents can help break the chain. Here's how to recognize the signs of child depression in overweight children and what you can do to help.
The Depression-Eating Link in Children
Nearly one in three American children is overweight or obese, more than triple the number in 1980. Reports of childhood depression have also increased, and the two problems are often related. The connection between them is not always obvious, but experts say that parents need to pay attention if their children's unhealthy eating habits seem tied to sadder moods or depression.
"The relationship between obesity and depression goes in many different directions," psychiatrist Myrna Weissman, MD, tells WebMD. In a study Weissman and her colleagues at Columbia University published in 2001, depressed children were more likely than other kids to become obese adults. "It's very easy in our culture to get overweight," Weissman says. "And if you are depressed, you may eat to compensate."
Feelings of emptiness -- caused by depression or weight -- can make children want to fill up on carbohydrates and chocolates. These stimulate the release of chemicals that can make them feel better.
Removing severely obese children from their homes would indeed be a shocking act of state intervention. A lower threshold should certainly be ending the direct marketing of unhealthy foods towards children. I expect that this comment and others will receive the predictable backlash from Ronald McDonald’s Army centered on the notion of ‘parental responsibility.’
Personal Responsibility is a noble value, but, one can not ignore that as a catch phrase it is predictably employed to counter efforts to reign the power and influence of corporations.
We are at a point with mass marketed food stuffs akin to the point with tobacco where we acknowledged that Joe Camel was an attempt to market nicotine addiction to children and when we learned that cigarettes where engineered to enhance their addictive qualities.
Corporations that sell prepared foods use chemical flavorings, HFCS, and high fat content to create a product that consumers will reliably return to. The factors that make these products so unhealthy are the same factors that make them so addictive thus profitable.
What effect do you suppose Arby’s is attempting to reinforce when they claim to sell "Good Mood Food?"
A ‘responsible’ reaction to this reality: Pressure lawmakers to at least ban the marketing of these narcotic foodstuffs to children if not to severely control their manufacture.
The obstacle: ADM, Kraft and other giants undertake comprehensive lobbying efforts and make large campaign contributions. Similarly, they control billions in advertising dollars they can offer to or withold from media companies.
First of all, giving a kid junk food is not the same as giving them alcohol or drugs or abusing them physically. It just isn’t. Children are removed from their parents only as a last result when the are in imminent danger. Secondly, do you really believe having government employess ripping kids kicking and screaming from their parents’s arms and tossing them into the already overburdened foster care system is a solution? Seriously?
"Obesity is not the fault of its many victims" When I read that statement I went back and read the article again and still came away wondering if you actually meant this. The entire article was about two very large women, sitting on a plane eating everything in sight (and letting a two year old do the same). Obesity is not a disease. No one on that plane would catch it from these two women. Obesity isn’t "in someone’s genes", it’s in their jeans. I have never seen a twinky leap out of a bag and wrestle someone to the ground and dive in their mouth. Losing weight may not be "easy" (which is a problem with our country, everyone wants the easy way to what they want/need) but it can be done by eating LESS (total amount and "junk" food) and getting off the couch and going outside to simply walk. That would ease the burden on our healthcare system also (and thereby reduce the costs to all of us).
One more thing that really bothers me, the author stated "Adults are criminally liable if they give cigarettes or alcohol or illicit drugs to a child." This is only partially true. A pregnant woman can drink, smoke and use all the drugs she wants and then claim that "It’s her body" and then require tax payers to foot the hospital bills for a baby that is born addicted.
Thank you for saying this. I fanned you long ago, so a new fave will have to do. These people who see the foster system as sunshine and lollipops are living in a fantasyland.
Wait–you think that it’s *not* okay to remove overfed kids from their parents homes, but it *is* okay to sterilize people who you think might not be good parents? Really?
Gee, I can’t think of a single thing.
And who would be caring for these children? And who would be paying for that care? Do you imagine the foster care system to be wonderful, supportive, caring and nurturing? It is not. Right now social agencies and social services are being slashed because of budget restrictions, so where would the influx of new dollars be coming from precisely to care for these children who you would consign to the state? Would it not be a better alternative to work with the families to provide education? We are all our brothers’ keepers–with or without the federal government’s healthcare legislation–but that means working together for positive change, not imposing more unfunded, illogical and likely unconstitutional and certainly unenforceable laws on American families.
I just have to say that your description of human beings as "natural resources" scares the S*&t out of me. You may want to think about that position a little bit more.
well Im 51…and lets just say – I was raised in a family with 8 kids….we didn’t have much, my mom was basically a stay at home mom…we didn’t have money for junk, tho less was sold in the 60′s – 70′s growing up….heck, I remember when McDonald’s Served MILLIONS..….now its BILLIONS....we never went out to eat…..we only had soda maybe a few times a yr (holidays) …and well, food was better and MADE….not brought processed junk. Walk around any mall in america today – and you’ll see at least every 5 out of 10 people obviously OVER-weight
I find the question offensive. Ok, we take children when they are not feed enough. So now we take them because the child gets too much food? Who decides what exactly is the right size for a child at a given age; as seen through whose eyes?
If I’m going to be FORCED by a mandate to buy insurance when I’ve never wanted or needed it,and the premiums are set across the board on an averaged rate and the *average* is to fat and sick because of it… YES! Take the financial disasters in the making and get it through the parents’ heads that setting a child up for a lifetime of crushing medical bills by teaching them nothing about how to avoid self-abuse with food is going to get you sanctioned. We do the SAME thing for children whose parents are unable to cope due to alcohol or drugs. FOOD is just as addictive and costly – moreso in fact, since it’s everywhere and MOST Americans are fat – and oh God, no.. we don’t want to admit WE’RE part of the problem.
Why don’t we rid ourselves of ethanol subsidies which are pushing the prices of all foods especially fresh meat and produce through the roof. Did you know it is cheaper (and easier) to feed a family of 4 at mcdonalds than it is to cook them a fresh balanced meal at home.
Why don’t we take the parents and teach them how to feed their children.
Does anyone fear the foster care system may become about the federal subsidies for each child added to the system, if we give them another reason to take children away from their parents where will it stop. The system is not my daddy.
Dana what world are you from. We are not our brothers keepers. Nor should we ever be charged with that responsibility.
Well thought out argument. It is odd that we would never watch a child be beaten, but we sit idly by as they are abused by food. Last summer I was considered rude when a 5 year old who was as round as she was tall, no neck to be seen, eyes sunken behind layers of fat, waddled up to the window of the local ice cream shop. Her mother ordered her a large cone, and as i sat there i noticed others looked on in horror yet said nothing.
I quietly asked the mother to come over. clearing the air that this was her child, did she really think it was in the child’s best interest to buy her a large ice cream when healthier alternatives were available.
While I was polite, I wasn’t yelled at with that much furry since boot camp. Mom knew what she was doing was wrong, but she, like all abusers, went on the attack instead of listening to advice, even if unwanted.
We do not need another government agency or law to force us to do what we should be doing as a society; acting in the best interest of our community and future generation and speaking up when we see something wrong. We need to break the stigma of mentioning weight like we did with cigarettes.
Can’t imagine someone not telling me to put out my cigar in a public place; can’t imagine someone actually telling me to put down a cheeseburger.
I have to agree with this. While I feel that letting your child become obese (barring some medical condition or prescription that causes weight gain) is abusive, I do not think the government will be feeding these children any better. Maybe not as much, but still mostly crap. Look at what they serve in schools? We have to fix the corruption in the regulation agencies (FDA, USDA, EPA) before anything else will work.
Without question kids should be obese children should be taken from the parents. Children are a natural resource of the country and need to be properly managed to support the good of the community rather than the greedy wishes of lazy parents. Plus now that we have Obama care, we are all our brothers keeper so we have the responsibility, the duty to insure everyone is working together to save on resources so there will be enough for everyone for as long as we need it. lazy parents who can’t keep their children cost all of us and should lost the right to keep their kids.
Those of us of a certain generation distinctly remember being told by our parents to "clean our plates" and "think of those starving children in _____." Fast forward to today where restaurants, and not just fast food restaurants, serve massive plates of food. Logically, no one is saying that you have to eat it all, but that inner voice is still telling you that it’s wasteful to have that much food in front of you and not eat it. It’s the psychological equivalent of taking food out of the mouths of those starving children.
So, yes, I’m carrying about 50 extra pounds, but I have made a concerted effort to get healthier and change my habits, but I can’t help but think that it should have started during childhood rather than in my 40s.
Do you honestly think they’d be better fed in foster care? Foster care is not an oasis of perfect parenting. Some are good and some are bad…but all of them would require that you further wound the child with the separation from a loving parent. Do I approve of someone overfeeding a child to this extreme? No. Is is the same as giving them illegal drugs, molesting them or beating them? Absolutely not. If someone reports an obese child to the government, the agency should step in and provide counselling and monitoring…even to the point of proving appropriate diet foods…but the last thing that child needs is to leave the family home.
This is such a critical topic, especially in a country where access to medical care is already an issue, and we are staring into a future where our children are increasingly at risk from the effects of our dreadful eating behaviors and questionable quality of what we’re putting in our mouths.
I read a report just days ago which estimates that one third of American children are overweight or obese. That report goes on to identify the problem by state (the worst offenders), and offers some other interesting data – yet it doesn’t sufficiently address the issues of education, of access, of socioeconomic status, ties to unemployment, or even simple supply & demand that could take us to better eating behaviors.
To presume "bad habits" on the part of the parents is to assume that they know what "good habits" are, and that they have access to affordable alternatives. Furthermore, once you have addictive eating behaviors at play, changing habits becomes exponentially more difficult.
We have a long way to go – and I agree, it isn’t about blame, but it must be about all of us insisting on better choices in schools, in communities, in our stores – and communicating the benefits of those choices.
http://dailyplateofcrazy.com/2011/07/09/are-you-fat-obesity-in-america-on-the-rise/
NO CHILDREN-PARENTS RELATION HAS TO BE RESPECTED
If the parents are overfeeding their children they should be warned then fined
Poor humans
In the name of war on terror their privacy is violated, their phones spied on, their body watched.
Their rights to be with their children should not be played with
What a good idea. Let’s elect a group of people who decide that if they don’t like what some other people are doing, they can take their children from them. Yeah, what can go wrong with THAT plan?
Nanny state run amok.
How about we deal with Monsanto and other purveyors of filth first ???
Just a thought.
I object to the parent child bond being broken because of unhealthy habits. I have no problem with children being removed from abusive homes but this would go too far.
I don’t think children should be taken for anything but physical or sexual abuse.
If some would be homewrecker thinks mom is morbidly obese and that she is likely to pass on such unhealthy behaviors to her children, then she should be educated, not have her children put into foster care because somebody thinks baby is getting too fat. Interfereing with parental love and bonding is faar worse than bad habits being generationally transferred.
While I do think breeding should be regarded as a privilege and that some folks are such miserable parenting material that they ought to be sterilized and prevented from begetting, that isn’t the same as removing a child from a loving home because the child is getting too fat.
It is better to have fat happy kids with loving (if obese) parents than to have skinny unloved kids in foster care. The foster care system has been shown to be rife with abuse and you have to have a pretty severe situation before you sever the parent/child familial bond.
This would be the WORST in "nannystateism" and would make many many folks simply seeth with outrage.
It is a sad scene when a child is obese and cannot enjoy childhood. Obese children are that way because their parents let them eat whatever. It is a form of child abuse. There has to be some kind of food program that can help. If i am struggling with finances and have a choice of buying a pack of cookies for 2 dollars or a bag of cherries for 5 i will not think twice and buy the cookies. it is expensive to eat healthy.
This whole food thing is tricky. I know neighborhoods with NO grocery stores but just corner stores.
This isn’t the answer. Our government is a part of the issues as well as their being personal responsibility.
problem comes because the process (feeding) is also a necessary good….a.o.t. smoking or IV drug use. Feeding also is a sign of nurturing and giving affection and love. At what point does this necessary good cross the line?
I love Michelle O’s Let’s Move campaign, and love government attempts at education. All in favor of healthier lunches in school. Just not sure that I want our government or lawmakers to draw above line for us.
What’s the state going to do with them?
Look around,more than 1/4 of the kid ppopulation is already obese,and it might have more to do with the sedentary lifestyle and the food choices the school forces them to have.The State has made them that way.how about funding p.e. In the schools?
"But our society does not view giving a child a donut or fries or soda as abusive — even if it occurs day after day."
one must look at their total daily intake, a single food or macronutrient is not making kids fat. it’s a little to construe ridiculous to construe a daily bowl of cereal, a soda or fast food as abusive.
"That is what has to change, certainly before we sanction the state taking an obese child from a parent. Let’s react to the process, not just the outcome. You don’t get to decide for yourself if giving drugs or cigarettes or alcohol to small children is appropriate. Society has decided for us: It is not! Good call."
where does it stop? crappy parenting has gone on for generations, what’s the next recommendation going to be, that everyone that wants to have a kid first needs to be licensed?