[www.dailymail.co.uk]


Totally appalling...

It is sad that she chooses a poor diet for herself, but to make those horrible food choices for helpless babies is child abuse.

Reading the article was like watching a train wreck. The sentence, "I feed my babies vegetables every Sunday" is the one that left me dumbstruck.


My favorite raw vegan

I'm not reading it, I'm too sad already.

coco Wrote:
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> I'm not reading it, I'm too sad already.


Aw...coco...

well...anyway...

I cut a few of the highlights out of the article, so's you won't have to endure the pain of reading the whole thing...

...Now back home in Coventry and living on benefits, she says she is too busy to prepare proper meals for her triplets or do much in the way of housework...

...The babies each consume around 1,249 calories a day, nearly double the recommended 765 for their 17lb weight at the age of eight months...

...'Babies are always hungry,' she said. 'Sometimes it's easier to give them food that's already prepared...

...'Anyway, they don't always have junk food - sometimes I cook a microwave meal for them. My babies are healthy.'...

...She receives total benefits of £227 a week - £140 tax credit, £42 child benefit and £45 family allowance - which she spends on her ten-a-day cigarette habit and food...


...The house is full of unwashed laundry and piles of toys, and Miss Salt says she and her babies only get dressed and go out once a week to collect her benefits...

...But they are seen regularly by a health visitor and have weekly visits from a trained helper from the Government's Sure Start scheme...

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That last line - the government is sending a "health visitor" (nutritionist?) to make sure that the babies well being is attended to?!?


Gotta love gov't. programs...

OMG she has frikken triplets?! Tell me she isn't on her own, good gawd, no kidding her house is a mess, full of laundry and they never go out! Shame about the diet but man, I can barely keep up with my 2 and I have help! *sympathy*

coco Wrote:
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> OMG she has frikken triplets?! Tell me she isn't
> on her own, good gawd, no kidding her house is a
> mess, full of laundry and they never go out! Shame
> about the diet but man, I can barely keep up with
> my 2 and I have help! *sympathy*


Oh, that's not the best part...I just can't understand why some people live like this.



Miss Salt, who blames her obesity on a thyroid problem, fell pregnant after seeing her then boyfriend for just four weeks.

They split up halfway through her pregnancy, and she now lives with her mother Jane...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2010 05:19PM by juicerkatz.

Hey, jk! Bringer of Bad News!

There is this, um, specimen of a certain sector of the socio-economic spectrum in every society. To my mind, it is a blessing that the UK has an NHS to try to set this woman straight about nutrition; this kind of travesty occurs everywhere here and there's no newspaper or health service doing a darn thing about it.

Hopefully, this publicity shall send the Mental Health Services round. And the Social Services to get those Diabetes Babies out of that household. And if that doesn't work, they also have Jamie Oliver to shout some sense into Miss Salt's doughy head.

Thank goodness it's a lovely day here, or I'd just go back to bed sad.

"Hey, jk! Bringer of Bad News! "


Now that's just not fair!

I haven't posted any "bad news" stories for weeks, & I have intentionally stayed out of coco's "bad news" threads, lol.

I actually don't watch/read/listen to ANY news anymore. I cut out all news sources a couple months ago, and none of my family/friends are permitted to discuss any

news stories/topics/gov't. topics or any other related political hoo-ha until further notice from me.

Since enacting the moratorium, I feel much better about life & my stress level has gone way down.

Head in the sand mentality? I guess so...

My take on it all is - "let someone else worry about it for awhile..."

I came across this story on another forum I visit, & I thought it would serve to awaken the masses if it gets more coverage.

"...To my mind, it is a blessing that the UK has an NHS to try to set this woman straight about nutrition"...

It looks to me like the NHS is giving her the go ahead to continue living the way she is...

jk,

I kid 'cos I care I so envy your resoluteness in imposing a media blackout. I just cannot bring myself to do this fully yet. Much chagrined, as being passive isn't like me. I guess I'm afraid of not knowing Something Important(I think this is an affliction that coco shares). But I feel myself drifting downward, rather like the physical sensation of drowning, when reading the paper or watching the pm news shows. So for these last few weeks, I have just skimmed headlines, without really analyzing[veeerrry difficult for someone like me] and not watched TV in the pm unless it's fun or educational, like PBS. It's a slow process but it seems to be working--I am much cheerier and even have more energy.

I hear you loud & clear, Tamu.

The negative coverage of just about all news/media is very draining. Even some *educational* shows have joined the hyped format somewhat, kinda trending in the "reality" tv type of delivery.

I can't stand any of it anymore. My SAD kinfolk & friends just don't understand me anymore...lol

I have a couple of friends who are total news/media "junkies" & they just HAVE to know what is going on all the time, especially in the political coverage.

They even get news updates on their iphones...man, turn that stupid thing off for once...

When you go "cold turkey" on the media, it feels like a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders. I rarely turn on the tv, and we are all (family) spending more quality time outdoors.

Been doing a great deal of foraging; even my teenage son can identify a few plants & has taken a passive interest since it is akin to some of his video game characters...

It isn't as difficult as you may think - to become disconnected. Try it for just one day, then stretch it to two, then a week. The only time our tv is on now is for doing the Insanity workout pgm. that I recently started...

We don't have a tv, i don't get the paper, i hear 10 mins of news on cbc radio 2 most AM's but I turn it down 'cause i don't want the kids to hear it (how many people have the news on when their kids are in the room? GAH!) and we live where there are no billboards. but when i check email or facecrack there it always is. you can't escape it.

coco -

I am envious of you - would love to live in a location like that! How far away are your neighbors?

Is the Daily Mail like the National Enquirer? It sounded more legit than that, but this article is purely designed to cause outrage. If you have ever watched "Maury" and his shows with the 200-lb. toddlers, this is the equivalent of that. What is interesting to me is that England has its own ghetto fabulosity. I am not talking about income but a state of mind that doesn't care about improving oneself in any way. But the fact that she got pregnant only a month after knowing her boyfriend says to me that she may have very poor impulse control or may be bipolar. So my judging someone who probably has some mental problems is not very fair or accurate of the situation. Her mother should step in. I also think this illustrates that although we need social services and food stamps, housing, etc., we have to realize that some people are incapable of making good choices for themselves--sometimes temporarily and sometimes for their whole lives. To just provide benefits without real therapy or whatever else she needs is going to result in the strong possibility that her kids will follow in their mother's footsteps. They are being raised with a poor role model, poor diet, no real exposure to anything besides a welfare office, no father...Yikes!

JK the neighbours are right next door. We're not out in the country side, just in a village. And actual, bonafide village. It's cute.

The Daily Mail is a terrible gossipy tabloid - very right wing and loves a 'good' story. It never reports any real news.

Don't even think about knocking the NHS. We might have waiting lists, there might be all kinds of problems with the NHS but the bottom line is that every single person in this country can get free health care. Have you any idea how amazing that is - I am constantly thankful for it. I had a 4month stay in hospital with a broken leg when i was younger and I have given birth to 3 babies all in NHS hospitals - all for free. I do pay my taxes though

Of course the person visiting this unfortunate family isn't a nutritionist but the fact that she is being visited by two people in different capacities means that the authorities have a big red flag over her and are very worried in deed. I imagine they are doing everything they can to educate and support her.
She is not being provided with benefits without any real 'therapy' as you term it.
I have no idea what ghetto fabulosity means but people like this woman appear in many countries including the US. Getting pregnant after one month hardly constitutes mental problems - kids get pregnant after one night all the time. Also people get pregnant sometimes in the UK in order to get provided with a house. These are usually young, badly educated girls who have grown up in similar situations.

Jamie Oliver although a household name won't figure in this lol - actually his credit is somewhat diminished by the fact that he gets paid for advertising in one of our biggest and very horrible supermarkets. He is a good man I agree but doesn't have a very high profile here generally - only whan one of his shows is on the tv or something

Ugh

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Hear hear flipperjan! We've got an amazing healthy care system here in Canada as well for which I am eternally grateful. I don't need it very often but when I do it would run me literally thousands of dollars each time. It's amazing how people whine and complain about it but honestly, it's fabulous by any standards.

I didn't know if it came across that I was knocking the health system, but I am not. The United States desperately needs a similar system but...well, since we cannot get political, I'll just leave it at that. We have welfare and unfortunately, as you mentioned, Flipperjan, for some young women who may feel they have no other means to obtain what they need or skills to offer, motherhood provides them with housing, medical care, food. I don't have a problem with people in need receiving basic care, but I do feel that women who do this intentionally have issues. Yes, I do believe she has mental problems. Not because she got knocked up after a month, but everything combined. She doesn't seem to see her behavior as a problem. She doesn't seem to think her kids need to get out more, eat better food, etc. It's like she's in this daze or something. I feel that some people need a bit of guidance when they are on "the dole" because getting assistance without being required to do anything can spell disaster, including more kids, more poverty, more lack of educated people...In the inner cites of America, there are unfortunately too many instances of young women who are virtual baby factories, churning out kid after kid because it pays to do so. I don't blame them if they don't see viable options. I want the system changed so that we can really lift people out of poverty and Step #1 is to stop unwanted, ill-advised pregnancies! Studies have shown that a single teen mother having a baby is a ticket to a lifetime of poverty unless she changes right then.

banana who,

After reading about this woman, I revisited the Appleton School Experiment(in Wisconsin), and it is making me more and more convinced that it's not so much the dissolution of the nuclear family in urban culture that is to blame for this kind of thing, as it is sucky nutrition. Sucky nutrition hampers proper neurochemical reactions, and not just by making you foggy or absent minded, but numb as peatbog mummy. Let's take Ms. Salt, whom I know think of as Veruca, for example. She appears to be almost psychotically divorced from the objective reality of her circumstances and what she's doing to her babies. Her diet is perhaps one of the worst we've heard of. We all talk about how raw gives us amazing clarity and focus, not just intellectual, but psychospiritual. Get what I'm sayin'? Imagine Veruca after a month at the Tree of Life Institute. Imagine the Shrodinger's Cat Veruca Salt, and wonder . . .

Yes, I really agree Tamukha. I mentioned her "daze" and fast food is certainly the culprit. I do feel, however, that single parent households should not be seen as desirable if possible. There are so many people in earlier times who struggled through poverty (before public assistance even existed!) and the fact that the parents were both in the household no doubt was a saving grace.

I'm absolutely certain that you're correct about the diet factor but... she has baby triplets? You know what she is so sadly lacking that is 100% neccessary for brain function of any kind? S.L.E.E.P! NO ONE can handle 3 babies on their own, it's totally insane! My gawd, the woman must be an absolute zombie. I'm stupified just thinking about it. After 9+ years of inadequate sleep myself I can only imagine how addled she must be.
It certainly isn't an excuse for the horror that is their life but man, if someone could just let the girl get some rest, I'm sure she'd do a bit better!

One of the women who I work for, 20 hours a month respite care for her son, has 5 children, took care of them by herself for a long time, but was definitely losing it...has a really great guy now that helps out allot, plus I work with her son 20 hours officially per month, really more like 40-50 but I just get payed for the 20.

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?