Children obese at 11 doomed to early death

Four in five overweight children face life-long battle with ill-health, report finds

CHILDREN are being condemned to an early death by their lifestyles – with four in five obese school pupils destined to remain dangerously overweight for life, a damning report warns.

Senior paediatricians last night said millions of families were stuck in “a terrible destructive cycle” which would cut lives short by decades, as they called for sweeping measures to reduce Britain’s junk food consumption.

The report, by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, calls for curbs on advertising of unhealthy foods before the watershed, and action to stop fast food outlets opening near schools. And it accuses the Government of stalling or going backwards in efforts to tackle “alarming” failings in child health.

One in three school pupils is overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school aged 11, official statistics show. Prof Neena Modi, president of the college, said such children would see their adult lives blighted and cut short.

“Four-fifths of obese children will remain obese as adults; that will reduce their overall life expectancy by up to 10 years, and their ‘healthy life’ expectancy by up to 20 years,” she said, with later years increasingly likely to be spent battling heart problems and diabetes. “That’s a very frightening statistic and something that Government must get to grips with,” she said.

Prof Modi said obese parents were far more likely to have obese children, with many born into lifestyle habits that were hard to shift.

“Fifty per cent of pregnant women are overweight or obese, which has a severe impact on the health and weight of the developing foetus,” she said.

“That is a damning and shaming indictment of the health of our nation; it’s an absolutely terrible destructive cycle,” the senior doctor said, calling for a “long-term vision” by the Government – including legislation – to force changes in habit.

Prof Modi also criticised cuts to budgets in public health funding, and accused the Government of “watering down” efforts to tackle obesity.

“We need the kind of hard hitting campaigns we used to have for HIV and for smoking, as well as firm action to curb the power of industry. Instead what we are seeing is cuts to public health budgets,” she said.

Caroline Cerny, of the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 health charities, campaign groups and medical royal colleges, said: “To improve children’s health in the future, we must take strong action today, starting with a 9pm watershed on junk food adverts on TV.”

The report, which compared government policies in England, Scotland and Wales, praised plans to introduce a sugar tax on soft drinks, but it said Scotland and Wales were now “making greater strides” in enacting policies to improve child health.

A government spokesman said: “There is always more to do, but we have world-leading plans in place to safeguard child health by combatting obesity, improving mental health and vaccinating against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. In the past year, both teen pregnancy and child mortality have fallen to all-time lows, and our soft drinks levy is already funding additional breakfast clubs and sports.”