Ban second helpings to fight child obesity

PARENTS should not give their children second helpings to protect them from becoming fat, says an obesity expert.

Dr Clare Llewellyn of University College London found that young children who are overweight eat just 12 extra calories at mealtimes than those of a normal weight.

They do not eat more often, and do not have more junk food, but pile on the pounds because their portions are too large.

She raised the problem yesterday at a Royal Society of Medicine conference on obesity in London. Speaking afterwards, she said: ‘Overweight and obese children are not eating radically different things or a huge amount more – they are eating a tiny bit more and that builds up over time.’

UCL studied 2,336 children aged two to five from the Gemini twin study it is involved with. It found that those who were overweight ate an average of 12 extra calories at each mealtime. While that may not sound a lot – less than the calories in an apple – it adds up to 420 additional calories every week or more than 1,820 a month. Researchers found that these children were growing 7 per cent larger.

Dr Llewellyn said: ‘You can see why families talk about how the weight just seems to be aggregating in the child, where they are completely unaware of what they’re doing wrong.

‘In this country, children don’t tend to be malnourished. A child who is recovering from a stomach bug and has lost weight may need more food, or a child who has been running around playing football for three hours. However, most children will be perfectly fine with what is on their plate.’