Why Katie Hopkin’s recent comments has made ‘my teeth itch and my nipples twizzle’.

I’ve always respected

Katie Hopkins

and her right to say and do what she pleases. She’s built a career on being a bitch. Congratulations to her. However, just as she has the right to say and do what she pleases, I have a right to protect my children from the effects of her stupid, damaging, hurtful and irresponsible comments.

She has let fly in her column for Now! magazine and on her video blog, laying into the parents of fat kids and blaming them for their children’s weight. She says the kids need to be sent to specialist sports schools and forced to lose the weight.

Then she went on to use some offensive stereotypes to try and strengthen her point.

She believes that fat-shaming the children and their parents into losing weight is the way forward.

Katie Hopkins, you have no idea what you are talking about and this mother of a fat child wants to tell you a thing or two.

http://ivillageau.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/files/katie-hopkins.jpg Katie Hopkins, fat-shaming children is wrong. Dead wrong.

Yes, there are children who are overweight due to their parents' unhealthy habits. Yes, these families need to change their behaviour for the sake of their children's health. But it is NEVER okay to shame someone over their weight for any reason.

The problem is that now that Hopkins has been fat, she feels as though she is an authority on it. Hopkins deliberately gained and lost 19 kilos for a documentary, to prove her point that obesity is due to laziness and losing weight is easy.

What I want to say to her is that weight gain - the kind that isn't gained for publicity reasons - is complicated. It is about the weight and it's not about the weight. Anyone who has been overweight in their lives will completely understand this statement.

The reasons behind family obesity and the startling number of children who are overweight and obese are more complicated than we realise and sometimes it's something kids will naturally grow out of as they get older. We used to call much of it 'puppy fat' and I saw it with my stepsons and my nephew who both gained weight in adolescence and then dropped it all as they got older.

http://ivillageau.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/files/Fat-kid-eating-chocolate-donut-facebook.jpg We need to deal with our children's weight gently, so we don't cause them food issues for the rest of their lives.

And now my middle son is what I would describe as 'portly', as opposed to his super-skinny brother and sister, and I can only conclude that he has a very different body type to them and puts on weight more easily.

But what I would never ever ever do is shame him, or myself, into losing weight. It is the very opposite of what parents should do. Shaming children is counter-productive and adds to turns the problem of eating too much into a mental health issue that could see them battling their weight for their entire lives.

How I handle my son's weight now will set him up for his entire life. So I am approaching it lovingly, gently, subtly, focusing on health and how he feels. It will be a gradual process that will take years and see him emerge as a healthier version of himself, for life.

I will not be sending him to a fat camp as though he has done something wrong and is being punished.

Katie Hopkins, you have a right to say whatever you like. You have a right to say that my son's weight is my fault, that my other son's deadly food allergies are all in our imagination and he is just 'fussy' and you can now use your recent, ill-thought-out weight gain for TV like a weapon, but I have a right to think that you are a complete and total moron who has no idea what she is talking about when it comes to issues of health and weight and obesity.

Do you think parents should be held accountable for their children's weight? What do you think of Katie Hopkin's suggestion that fat kids should be sent to sports camp?

Want more? Try:

The children who eat themselves to death.

Schools could soon be weighing and measuring your children.

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