County officials in Ohio saw a big problem with an 8-year-old child living in Cleveland Heights — the third grader, name withheld, was tipping the scales at over 200 pounds.

Case workers in Cuyahoga County feared for their child’s life and have placed him into foster care after the working with their mother for more than a year to help remedy the boy’s obesity problem. Social workers tell the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the boy has been under protective supervision from the county since 2010 when he was diagnose with sleep apnea, a condition which is commonly weight-related. The child began to lose weight shortly after but has ballooned up to more than 200 pounds in recent months.

“A 218-pound 8-year-old is a time bomb,” University of Pennsylvania professor Arthur Caplan tells the Plain Dealer.

Even if that is the case, the child’s mother and others think that the government’s intervention wasn’t exactly necessary.

“They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don’t love my child,” the boy’s mother says. Her name is also being withheld.

“Of course I love him,” she adds. “Of course I want him to lose weight. It’s a lifestyle change, and they are trying to make it seem like I am not embracing that. It is very hard, but I am trying.”

200-lb third-grader placed in foster care for being too fat — RT