BC Council for Families

I think taking obese children away from their parents is wrong, if the authorities care so much about these kids fate and blame the parents for their extra weight then they should rather teach the parents how to feed their kids. As a parent I am always afraid that my kid will also become obese, my son is currently 4 months old and for now I give him soy baby formula only, but I know that sooner or later he will make his own food choice and with so much junk food around us anything can happen.

Blaming parents won't solve this one.
I think the issue is very complex- way more complex than a solution of removal. Sure, the parents make the choices that ultimately result in their children being overweight or obese- but they didn't do it purposely to hurt the child. It's lack of education, awareness and probably money.
I like to look through a population health lens. If there are so many children all of a sudden in our society with weight problems, it is NOT simply a matter of individuals making poor choices. It is a TREND and needs a societal i.e. population health approach. Fast food is laden with salt, sugar and fats. People living in poverty often resort to fast food because it is cheap, tastes "good" (all that fat and salt) and it is more readily available in lower-income neighbourhoods than wealthier ones. Government hasn't raised the welfare rate for years, and minimum wage is ridiculously low. The child poverty rate in BC is still the highest in Canada. Food banks help fill bellies, but the food is often of very poor nutritional quality. Poor and working parents are stressed out and may reach for packaged food because of their own depression and exhaustion.
Companies are allowed to put as much fat, salt and sugar into their foods as they want and are allowed to advertise directly to children with clowns, toys, songs and so forth. These same companies often sponsor school activities, put their junk food machines into schools, (and underfunded schools make much needed income).
PE classes are often the first to go when school boards in North Amercia are forced to cut back when the government funders make cuts. Some years ago I worked at UBC. The biggest university in BC agreed to not install water fountains in new buildings when they made a deal with Coca Cola, who installed their pop machines instead.....
Prevention is KEY: Where were the teachers, doctors, school nurses and the programs/trainings for parents when the kids were younger BEFORE they were allowed to get so overweight? I just cringe at the simplistic thought that individual kids are being torn away from their moms and dads. And put where I wonder? Do these strangers have expert knowledge about childhood obesity and the complex emotional issues that might very well be involved? I doubt it very much.
I think we probably still view over-eating as a moral issue, similar to alcohol and drug addiction. We're stuck in decaying Victorian do-gooder mind-sets. Nutrition, health and active living should be core curriculum from ECE programs through high school and beyond.
This article refers to an American doctor. Maybe in Canada our provincial and federal governments are doing a bit more than in the US, at least more recently with some BC schools mandating exercise each day. Some schools have healthy snack programs, but these aren't universal.
People get angry when talk comes up of limiting or banning fast food advertisements. But, it worked for tobacco. Smoking rates have dropped right off in the last generation, and a similar effort will have to be mounted to tackle this new emerging childhood obesity problem.
Forcing fast food companies to lower their fat, salt and sugar, banning their advertising, increasing incomes to low-wage earners and welfare recipients, increasing health and nutrition knowledge throughout the school years, adding plenty of exercise and sports in the classroom from the early years on- all these and probably more things will have to be done. If we simply blame these "bad" parents and rip their children out of their arms, we will do absolutely nothing to stop the obesity epidemic from spreading.

Speaking of PREVENTION: one last thought, breastfeeding has definitively been proven to lower the risk of childhood obesity later in life. Yet breastfeeding rates past a few weeks or months are not great, despite government and medical recommendations for nursing for "2 years and beyond." There is plenty of lip-service given to breast is best, yet formula companies have recently been allowed to begin advertising on TV and in print again, despite the World Health Organization 'ban' on advertising baby milk substitutes.