Legislators in Puerto Rico are debating a bill that would fine parents of obese children up to $800 if they don’t lose weight.<\/p>\n
The bill aims to improve children’s wellbeing and help parents make healthier choices, Sen. Gilberto Rodriguez said in a statement issued Monday.<\/p>\n
Public hearings for the bill are scheduled to begin Friday.<\/p>\n
If approved, public school teachers would flag potential obesity cases and refer them to a counselor or social worker, depending on the severity of the case. Health Department officials would then meet with the parents and determine whether the obesity is a result of bad eating habits or a medical condition. They also would create a diet-and-exercise program combined with monthly visits to ensure it’s being followed.<\/p>\n
After six months, officials would evaluate the child again, with parents possibly facing between $500 and $800 in fines if the situation does not improve within another six months to a year.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control defines childhood obesity as having a body mass index or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex.<\/p>\n
Several doctors including the president of Puerto Rico’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics have spoken out against the measure, saying it is unfair.<\/p>\n
More than 28 percent of children in Puerto Rico are considered obese, compared with some 18 percent in the U.S. mainland.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: Fox News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Legislators in Puerto Rico are debating a bill that would fine parents of obese children up to $800 if they don’t lose weight. The bill aims to improve children’s wellbeing and help parents make healthier choices, Sen. Gilberto Rodriguez said in a statement issued Monday. Public hearings for the bill are scheduled to begin Friday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36,38],"class_list":["post-90565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-corruption","tag-palaver-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}