A mum forced to lock her fridge and kitchen cupboards to stop her 17-stone schoolboy son from raiding them has hit back at sneering strangers who “think she’s a bad parent“.
Courtney Graham’s son Caden, 12, was diagnosed with rare genetic condition, Prader Willi Syndrome, at just four days old. The syndrome, which is caused by missing genetic material, causes learning difficulties, behaviour challenges and an excessive appetite that can easily lead to dangerous weight gain.
The condition led the youngster, who used to wear size 5XL shirts, to raid the kitchen cupboards and even the bin desperately hunting down food. He was forced to rely on an inhaler to help his breathing and a mask at night to help his sleep apnoea. Courtney said Caden, who tipped the scales at 21st at the age of 11, is regularly gawped at and whispered about in the street by strangers.
The 34-year-old fabric coordinator said that, while kids are cruel, adults are worse as “they know better”. Courtney sent Caden to a specialist children’s hospital in April 2024 for four months that “saved his life” by helping him shed 75lbs. To shed light on the condition, from which TV personality Katie Price’s 22-year-old son Harvey Price also suffers, Courtney shared a video on social media.
A TikTok clip captioned “he’s not just ‘fat'” and we’re not just “bad parents” racked up more than 11,200 views. Footage shows the pre-teen at his heaviest weight in April 2024 before showing him smiling at the camera four months later after his weight loss. The mum-of-one has placed him on a strict meal plan and hopes to educate others to ensure people are kinder towards parents looking after children with additional needs.
Courtney, from Seminole, Florida, US, said: “Kids are mean but adults are worse because they know better. We get looked at when we’re out in public. I’m fit, I work in construction, my husband’s fit and he works construction. They see this chunky kid and we get looks. I kind of feel like they look like ‘maybe he’s adopted’ or ‘maybe they just don’t care about him’.
“There’s a few times where I or my husband have had to put an adult in their place out in public because of the constant staring or the hush hush talk. We hear it, we’re not stupid. When I hear disrespect I stand up for my child and advocate. I’m very open with Caden so Caden knows his disability also.
“Kids are going to be mean, he knows that he’s overweight. He’ll tell me ‘some kid called me fat today’ and we’ll have a discussion about it. He’s a tough kid, he has the best heart.” Initially clueless how to help Caden, Courtney now has a ‘very strict’ meal plan in place to limit his calorie intake.
Courtney said: “I didn’t really have a lot of education because nowhere here really knows about Prader-Willi syndrome. I would feed him what I felt like a normal child would eat. I was definitely doing everything wrong. He will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and right after he’s starving again, immediately.”
“His body doesn’t break down calories or carbs. He was only born with one-third of the normal muscle tone so it takes him a lot of energy to do what we do on a normal day. He had no desire to do anything. Everything took his breath away, his breathing was terrible and he had to have an inhaler.
“I have to lock up my cabinets and my refrigerators every single night before we go to bed or if I’m not going to be in the room to watch him because he will steal food because he feels starving. The crossing line that made me scream out for help was when I caught him sifting through the trash cans.
“It broke my heart. My kid was so hungry he felt he had to sift through the trash cans.” Now Courtney hopes to spread important awareness about her son’s condition and urges people to be kinder. Courtney said: “Just because someone’s obese doesn’t mean they’re a careless parent.
“People who have special needs children are struggling. It’s hard for us and the last thing we need is a sneer or snarl or a smart remark from someone who doesn’t know a footstep in our shoes. Spread kindness, your children are watching you. Kids aren’t born mean, they’re watching their parents and the adults around them. Our future generation needs to be kinder.
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