State Seizes 120-Pound Toddler

Aug. 28 -- The parents of a toddler in New Mexico say they have lost custody of the 3-year-old girl because they couldn’t control her weight.

Anamarie Martinez-Regino weighs 120 pounds and is 3½ feet tall — three timesheavier and 50 percent taller than an average 3-year-old, accordingto the girl’s physician, Monika Mahal, who made the recommendationthat she be removed from her parents’ custody.

Miguel Regino and Adela Martinez, Anamarie’s parents, say they’ve done everything they can to help Anamarie and say the state has unfairly labeled them unfit to care for her.

The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department took their daughter, after a doctor said the child’s condition was life-threatening.

“I saw a child being pulled away from the only parents she’s known. The only remembrance she has is them pulling her away and us standing there crying because we felt so useless. We couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t stop them,” Adela Martinez told ABC’s Good Morning America.

Mahal was out of town and unavailable for comment.

In the Child’s Best Interest?

Irene Moody, who is in private practice with Mahal and hasexamined Anamarie, said Friday the decision was in the bestinterest of the child.

“I can’t tell you what is causing her to be this large inabsolute certainty,” Moody told the Albuquerque Journal. “But wedo know that her size is life-threatening.”

Margaret Martinez, Anamarie’s grandmother, said her granddaughter has had a weight problem since she was 2 months old.

“She just started growing and gaining. I mean she just kept going, you know and it’s just been so hard. And then the first doctors, they just kept saying, ‘Stop feeding her,’ and I told them ‘I’m not feeding her what you think I’m feeding her,’” Margaret told Good Morning America.

Anamarie has been in and out of the hospital since she was an infant, but doctors have not been able to determine a cause. Glandular tests have been conducted andnothing abnormal has been found, Moody said.