Dept. of Health considers new steps to fight the flab

The Government is so concerned about childhood obesity that the Department of Health is considering warning parents if their child is found to be overweight.

Children in England are measured at five and 10, but parents are only told of results if they request them. But now, parents may get the results automatically.

Between a quarter and a third of children in England are believed to fall into the overweight category and doctors and ministers are concerned that there will be a ‘fat epidemic’ in years to come as more people suffer from health problems related to obesity.

An obese person can expect to live nine years less than a person of healthy weight.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said child obesity was a 'huge problem to overcome'. He said: 'It's a good thing in the sense that if the government expects parents to [have] prime responsibility for the raising of their children, it is absolutely essential that they should know what the healthy range of weight is.

'We would think, in fact, this whole thing has got to start earlier.

'If you start earlier, around the age of two and three from nursery, then you've got the time to start to implant the healthy eating, healthy exercise education, which will then carry them through school.'

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