More and more kids are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Experts say it can be traced to terrible eating habits and a lack of physical activity. Yet despite the reality that these kids have parents who’ve set no limits or expectations, this USA Today story takes the typical, wrongheaded approach that somehow the government is the solution to overweight kids. And as always, there’s no shortage of advocates to push for more programs and services (emphasis is mine):

Still, larger efforts, such as large-scale government programs at the preschool level, are needed to reverse the habits of a junk-food nation and curb the disease, Sothern says.

Anxiety runs high for what aging children with diabetes will be up against in the years ahead.

“The health insurance system is just horrible for these kids as they age. They get kicked out of their cozy pediatric health care systems, knocked off their parents’ health plans, then stop care and suffer the consequences,” Lipton says.

Long-term complications of untreated diabetes that previously affected adults in their 60s — blindness, kidney failure, amputations and cardiovascular disease — will appear sooner.

“We are already seeing some 20- and 25-year-old kids now on dialysis for kidney failure. It’s chilling,” Lipton says.

What is chilling to me is that some parents have so completely abdicated their fundamental responsibilities to care for, guide, counsel, educate, and develop their children into healthy adults.

. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.