I just found out about a shocking incident that happened in Germany a few weeks back where a 5 year old girl "Lea-Sophie" was found starved to death. The piece of information that nearly made me sick was that she only weighed 7Kgs (15 pounds) when she was found - that's actually less than my 6-month old son weighs.

Here's the excert from a story that ran in the international press:

"The parents of Lea-Sophie were arrested this week on charges of neglect after allegedly failing to adequately feed their daughter for months on end. She died on Tuesday, Nov. 20, after being admitted to a hospital in Schwerin, weighing just over seven kilos (15 pounds) -- three times less than an average child her age.

The authorities in Schwerin have come in for criticism. Hermann Junghans, head of Schwerin Social Services, insists that welfare officers did their job properly but has admitted that the two social workers who visited the family a fortnight ago after an anonymous tip-off had 'found nothing amiss.' "

After hearing the story I really struggled with the sheer sadness of what the starvation must have meant for the girl in the months leading up to her death. I can't even contemplate the mental state of her parents who let it come to that. It is simply incomprehensible for me.

Judging by the media reaction there was a big outcry in Germany of "how could this have happened" and there was a lot of finger pointing going on. As I was thinking about it I wondered what authorities CAN and CAN'T do in these cases? Where is the right balance between a big brother state that also monitors the privacy of families and a "hands off" administration that never interferes?

Could this happen in our country ... in our city? Probably. Is there an easy way to prevent? Unlikely. So what else can be done? Some politicians in Germany have called for a mandatory health check for children up to a certain age. I'm not sure how realistic it is to introduce and enforce this but it certainly seems that somehow there is a gap in medical attention between the ages of 2 (when most of the immunisation has been done) and the age children go to school.

Surely a mandatory quarterly health check between ages 2 and 6 would also help with other issues. Well - it's an idea.

-Stef

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