Weight help for kids

A programme proven to help kids with weight issues has earned a Taranaki paediatrician an award. Dr Yvonne Anderson helped set up the Whānau Pakari programme, which focuses on the whole family, promotes long-term healthy lifestyle changes and bans talk of obesity, weight loss or diets.

It includes home-based assessments, cooking sessions, virtual supermarket tours and fun weekly activity sessions. Children who attended 70 per

cent of the sessions had significant reductions in BMI. Now Dr Anderson has been awarded the L’Oréal-UNESCO

for Women in Science Fellowship, a $25,000 grant that will help fund further research.