The taxpayer should pay up for my girl to go to fat camp
A MOTHER is demanding that the Government pay for her ten-year- old to attend a ‘fat camp’ to lose weight.
Liz Thomson says she is powerless to stop her daughter Holly-Ann from over-eating, but the 8st girl blames her mother for making her overweight.
The unemployed 34-year- old has contacted Jeremy Hunt saying the Department for Health should provide funds for Holly-Ann to go to a weight loss camp.
Miss Thomson, from Ovenden, West Yorkshire, said: ‘She just doesn’t know when to stop eating.
‘There’s nothing in her head to tell her when she’s full. I’ve tried everything but at the end of the day I can’t stop her. She has a food addiction that comes f rom an emotional attachment to food.
‘She’s a very active girl … but in the evenings she will eat whatever. There’s no filling her. The Government need to take action and do something – childhood obesity is a serious issue.’
But the mother also blames doctors for highlighting the issue of Holly-Ann’s weight when she was five, accusing them of damaging her self-esteem. Miss Thomson added: ‘The doctor just said outright, “she’s fat”. I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be hurtful, but girls take things to heart. Then Holly-Ann came home from school one day saying I had made her fat. I was so heartbroken.
‘They had been doing height and weight measurements and I think one of the teachers had made a comment about my weight.
‘Obesity and food addiction is an eating disorder … People just assume overweight children eat rubbish and the parents are to blame, but this is a behavioural issue.’
The mother, who lives with her 26year-old partner Kyle, a DJ, is calling for the Government to fund programs to help children overcome food addiction and lose weight.
She claims a weight loss centre called the More -Life camp would be ‘life-changing’ for Holly-Ann.
But at a cost of £4,250 for a fiveweek stay, Miss Thomson said she cannot afford it.
‘ She needs t his i ntervention because you can’t get anything from the NHS,’ the mother said. ‘All you get is either support in bulimia or anorexia. Holly-Ann has a bad behavioural relationship with food.
‘She knows what is healthy, but she doesn’t know when to stop and she doesn’t know what should be the right amount for her … I have to be a bit strict about it, which puts a strain on our relationship, not because I’m worried about her size or the size of her clothes, but for her health.’
Miss Thomson, who admits she has problems with her own weight, said she has previously lost 7st, but piled on the pounds again. She suffers from bipolar disorder, which she said affects her eating habits.
She admitted that the More Life camp, which aims to help children make healthier choices, was ‘a lot of money’ and ‘some people may argue “you put your daughter in that position”’, but added: ‘All I want to do is protect my child.’
‘There’s an 18-month waiting list to see a child psychologist and the doctor I spoke to was very dubious on filling out a Clinical Commissioning Group form for pots of money for individual situations,’ she said.
‘As parents, we have to take responsibility … I’m trying to nip it in the bud a nd I’m getting a bit annoyed … I’ve emailed the Government, the Health Secretary and said, “Can you help me?”. They talk and they moan about obesity, but let’s do something about it.
‘I’ve gone to the bank for a loan, written numerous letters to charities … I chose to be fat, but I don’t choose that for my daughter … I am fighting for her right to a decent standard of living.’
‘I can’t stop her eating’