One in five children starting school in the county ‘is overweight’
COUNCILLOR’S WARNING AS NEW HEALTH STRATEGY DISCUSSED
We’re in the middle of another pandemic that nobody wants to talk about and that’s childhood obesity Craig Smith
LEICESTERSHIRE is facing another major health issue with almost one in five of youngsters of reception age classed as overweight or obese, a councillor has warned.
Craig Smith, who represents North Coalville, highlighted the problem at a Leicestershire County Council meeting, which was discussing a new strategy of how to tackle problems with children’s health.
He said: “We’re actually in the middle of another pandemic that nobody wants to talk about and that’s childhood obesity.
“We’ve now got 19 per cent of reception age children who are already obese and overweight.
“There is a pandemic of overweight children coming up, we’re getting more and more each year.”
The council’s new child health programme will cover all children, from babies to 19-year-olds, extending to 25 for those with special needs.
There is likely to be little change in the scheme for the 0-10 age group, when compared to the council’s existing healthy child programme.
The only difference will be extra health check-ups, at three to four months and three-and-a-half years old.
No extra measures are planned to tackle child obesity for the age group other than those now in place.
However, a number of changes have been planned for the 11-19 age group after an informal consultation with communities.
These include an increased focus on obesity, emotional wellbeing, including body image and selfesteem, healthy relationships and alcohol abuse.
Councillor Phil King, the deputy chair of the committee, said he had concerns over the programme’s focus on alcohol abuse rather than substance abuse more generally.
He said: “In the presentation, it was mentioned there would be a focus on alcohol misuse.
“Personally, I think just to focus on alcohol and not the multiple other elicit substances that young people are prone to use, some of which have very harmful and serious effects both physically and psychologically on young people, I do think this healthy child programme does need to focus on those as well.”
Kelly-Marie Evans, public health consultant for the county council, explained the data they have suggests alcohol is the primary concern in substance abuse among young people.
She added that, in communities where substance abuse such as drugs is more prevalent, they are working on a strategy to address that.