Is overfeeding abuse?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Should parents who overfeed their kids be charged with child abuse? Is overfeeding as bad as starving a child? Discuss.

[AFPheonix]

I imagine it would boil down to the mindset and intentions behind the overfeeding. Obviously pathological overfeeding in an attempt to cause obesity in the child warrants the child's removal from the situation.
It gets to be a little more gray further down the scale of intent.
It also kind of boils down to a shift in attitude in parenting. Remember how much crap we all got as children about wasting food? (well...maybe that was just my mom). Eating until the entire plate is clean doesn't necessarily lend itself to learning portion control, beyond the lesson of trying to not take more than you can eat.

Our biology, the food supply available, popular foods, social mores....there's a lot that goes into how, what, when, and why we eat.

[JustADude]

I'd have to say that force-feeding a child would be grounds for abuse, but simply providing food for a child who desires to eat isn't. It might be grounds for Parental Neglect charges if it gets to the point where the kid gets morbidly obese before they're 12 years old.