Parents to receive fat reports on kids

Parents are to get school “fat reports” detailing their children’s weight as part of the fight against childhood obesity.

Rules to be introduced in September will see the parents of all children aged between four and five, and 10 and 11 receive the reports, after research suggested the weight problem among Britain’s children is worse than originally thought.

“Many parents need help in identifying that their children are overweight in the first place.”

The most recent figures show that 1 in 10 children aged between four and five are obese and 13% are overweight, with the figures rising to 17.5% and 14.2% by age 11.The research for the Department of Health reported that despite a well-publicised campaign to tackle obesity the results “may underestimate the true population prevalence of obesity and overweight at national, regional and local level”.

The British Medical Association is already warning that a quarter of all children in the UK will be obese by 2020, resulting in them having a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

Paul Sacher, a paediatric dietician at the Childhood Nutrition Research Centre in London, said many parents need help in identifying that their children are overweight in the first place.

“If I was a parent I would want to know if my child was overweight or obese, then I could do something about it,” he said.

The Conservatives have opposed the plan, saying it should be left to parents to regulate the weight of their children.