A concerned aunt regularly watches her 6-year-old niece and is alarmed by how much, and what, the child is being fed.

The girl is already severely overweight, eats almost exclusively fast food, refuses vegetables, and is constantly hungry. Her parents frame it as “her choice,” even joking about her throwing up from drinking too much milk, while continuing to give unlimited portions, seconds, and desserts.

Read on for the story.

WIBTA if I told my brother and SIL that they are ridiculously over feeding their child?

Hi all, I need some opinions on how to go about this. I have a niece that is 6 years old that is very overweight for her age. She already weighs over 125 lbs and she is about 3 ft. tall.

My SIL has me watch her a couple days a week when she has to work. Now, I don’t mind watching her except for the fact that this kid is ALWAYS hungry and asking for food.

Her parents have pacified her with food her entire life. I have NEVER seen her eat a vegetable, and her parents do not make her eat them. Her mother is always saying, “when she is ready to eat a vegetable, she will, it’s her choice.”

Yikes.

This kid is chocked full of chicken nuggets, fries, and pizza. Her growing belly is extremely concerning. Her mom jokes about how she throws up milk sometimes because she will drink too much of it. As if she is not the parent that has control over what she drinks, and how much.

She refuses to try anything new, and her parents will make separate meals for her every time they eat. Not one of these meals has ever been healthy.

I once watched them feed her, over the course of the day, those pancakes wrapped in sausage with a ridiculous amount of syrup. She ate the entire box of 10 in one day. And they always give her seconds with dessert because she begs.

How sad!

This is obviously a huge cause of concern for me. She is a wonderful little girl otherwise, and has told me about how much she is being bullied in school already because of her weight. She is in Kindergarten!

I hate to watch them ruin this little girls life because they give in to her every whim on what she wants to eat. It’s clear she has an eating disorder at 6!

I made spaghetti for a group of people the other day, and this little girl, while I wasn’t looking, scarfed down an entire loaf of garlic bread by herself.

Garlic bread meant to be for the entire group. I checked the label, and this bread alone was 2000 calories. Never mind what else she ate that day.

That’s extremely concerning.

It is honestly taking a toll on me. I find myself getting irritated when she is constantly begging for food. Even after we just ate.

I caught her telling her mom the other day that she was hungry when she picked her up, and she had just had two plates of food at my house.

When I watch her, I try to get her to make healthier choices (she won’t), and I’m not her parent so I don’t know how they will react. Especially because they won’t reinforce it at home.

Sigh.

Both of her parents are thin, and I don’t want a hard unhealthy life for this precious little girl that I think they are absolutely ruining.

Kids are the worst when it comes to teasing. I don’t know why they are setting her up for failure.

So WIBTA if I told her parents that they are feeding her incredibly too much? I know this is a touchy subject, but I am at my wits end because I care about her.

She’s not trying to shame the child or parent her niece, she’s worried about her health, her emotional well-being, and the long-term consequences of habits that are already causing harm.

Still, she knows weight and food are sensitive topics and fears backlash if she speaks up.

This person has been there.

This person says to call an abuse hotline.

And this person says she needs to be seen by a doctor…but certainly NTA.

When a child’s health and happiness are already being affected, staying silent to keep the peace doesn’t feel responsible, it feels complicit.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.