Honey Boo Boo horribly exploited in televised ‘weight intervention’

The Thompson family, famous for their reality series, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, is back in the spotlight. But this time, they may be directly harming their 9-year old daughter, Alana, nicknamed Honey Boo Boo.

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The child has been a regular on TV since her sass on an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras netted the family its own reality series. Now, Honey Boo Boo’s mom is getting divorced and reportedly dated a sex offender last year, so the last thing the family needs is more negative publicity.

But just as Honey Boo Boo is really entering her formative, pre-teen years, that’s exactly what she’s getting. She and her mother, Mama June, will appear on an episode of The Doctors, where InTouch reports they’ll be told that Honey Boo Boo is obese and needs to lose weight immediately.

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“Something that I’ve learned in the emergency department is the common culprit in a lot of these things is what you’re eating,” Dr. Travis Stork warns the young reality star. “And when I look in your fridge, Mama June, I’m sorry I didn’t see anything in that fridge that’s going to either improve Alana’s weight or decrease inflammation in her body.”

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, on the other hand, doesn’t beat around the bush.

“She is an obese 9-year-old,” she says.

While Honey Boo Boo and her family have taken criticism from the media regarding the child’s weight, none of it has been as extreme as this “health intervention,” set to air Wednesday on CBS. Sure, dinners like “sketti” and drinking “go-go juice” — Honey Boo Boo’s name for Mountain Dew — aren’t the healthiest choices a family can make. But to air an actual intervention on national television, for a 9-year-old? I can’t even imagine the damage that could do to her self-esteem. And confidence in herself is a necessary ingredient to making healthy choices in the future, something this stunt can only hurt.

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What do you think? Do you support the idea of holding a televised “health intervention” for a young child? Or do you think the Thompson family has gone too far? Head down to the comments and tell us your take.