FAT LOT OF GOOD TO CALL KIDS CHUBBY..

Stress and stigma ‘adds weight’

TELLING children they are fat leads to them piling on the pounds when growing up, MPs heard.

Experts also said there is no evidence diets work in the long term, with kids eventually putting weight back on.

Dr Angela Meadows, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Essex, said stress and stigma increase the risk of youngsters becoming heavier.

She added: “Telling children they’re overweight, it has been tried.

“It tends to have the opposite effect to that intended. It tends to promote anxiety, depression, isolation, internalized weight stigma and maladaptive coping behaviours.

Experts said the National Child Measurement Programme, which takes the weight and height of pupils in reception class and Year 6, contributes to Britain’s obesity epidemic.

Four in 10 children are overweight or obese when they leave primary school. And the proportion of five-year-olds who are obese has leapt by 45% in a year.

MPs were told hundreds of millions of pounds had been spent on intervention services but there should be a focus on kids’ self-esteem and healthy lifestyles.

Helen James, founder of social enterprise Nutriri, said health workers dread making calls to parents whose children have been picked up through the National Measurement Programme, adding: “It feels very inflammatory.”

Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, defended the weight measurement scheme and wants it expanded to identify overweight toddlers.

He told the Health Select Committee: “You see whether their weight is going up, keeping on the right centile, or going down. And then you give them advice.

“Without the data you cannot make any sensible decisions.”