Overweight children removed from parents

Despite newspaper and media reports, I can’t believe that Social Services have removed a couples’ children purely on the grounds of weight.
I’m sure the professionals involved will have taken a broad view on this, not simply based a decision on the fact that the whole family is over-weight.
Some people, it must be said, do have issues around food, believing it to be more than simply nourishment. I’m sure many of us have had times when we’ve used food as a comfort rather than as fuel. But for some, this becomes an obsession so they end up fully believing in the power of food to make them feel better.
Sadly, it doesn’t work. Instead of feeling happy after stuffing themselves, they end up feeling guilty. And feeling guilty makes them feel worse, so the viscious cycle of comfort- eating can get perpetuated as they try yet another bar of chocolate to cheer them up. And we all know that the more you eat, the more you want, so it becomes so easily to pile on the pounds.
I’m not in a position to know what’s been happening in this particular family but if they’ve all got caught up in a merry-go-round of comfort eating, it’s easy to see why Social Services might be concerned. Anyone who’s obsessed by food can easily get confused into thinking that food somehow equates to love.....and that by pressing food on people, you can demonstrate your love for them.
But as most of us know, there are far better ways of showing love and affection. Sadly not everyone learns this – and if this couple never learned how to express love more appropriately, it’s possible they’ve focussed on food instead.
Sad though, that it has come to this. You’d think there would be better ways to help the family resolve their problems than by putting them through the heartbreak of separation.