Experts call for annual weighing of children to tackle obesity crisis
Experts call for annual weighing of children to tackle obesity crisis
Leading healthcare experts have called on the Government to implement an annual programme to weigh young children in an effort to tackle chronic levels of childhood obesity, in an open letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Professor David Haslam, Chairman of the National Obesity Forum, and Tam Fry, the Forum’s spokesman, have called on the Government to implement a child weighing programme, which was included in the Childhood Obesity Plan that was published in August 2016. The experts have claimed such a programme would enable early intervention to reduce spiralling childhood obesity levels and improve public health.
The letter has also highlighted that no consultation has taken place on the weighing of children since the publication of the Childhood Obesity Plan in August, and recommended the Health Secretary sets out steps to implement the initiative.
Figures from the latest National Child Measurement Programme in 2016 have shown that one in five children starts primary schools either overweight or obese.
Tam Fry, Spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, said:
“The inclusion of a default measurement programme was a high point of the Childhood Obesity Plan. But five months on it’s important that what are laudable aims are translated into positive and concerted action.
“Weighing children every time they have a medical check would be excessive. But weighing children annually is not invasive or onerous, and would help in tackling levels of childhood obesity. Armed with this information, parents and health professionals would be able to act early to prevent issues of overweight and obesity. In the long-term, that could have a significant impact on a public health problem costing the NHS more than £4 billion a year in England alone.”
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