Fat chance of healthy future for obese kids

THE average 18-monthold has a vocabulary of around 20 words. Although they may be able to string together the odd sentence or phrase, they usually communicate through direct commands.

They are unlikely, for example, to say things such as ‘I need to go on a diet’ or ‘Does my bum look big in this sleepsuit?’

On the surface then, the revelation this week that children in Scotland as young as 18 months old are being put on weight management courses by doctors is obscene. What one-and-a half-year-old needs to go on a diet and exercise programme?

The frightening answer is, quite a few. In fact, the obesity crisis Scotland is facing right now is so alarming and so rapid that our health professionals are unable to keep up, particularly when it comes to the youngest members of our population.

Perhaps we should not be surprised. The cycle starts before children are even born, with women who are overweight giving birth to larger babies with more fat on them.

But the biggest perpetrator in this epidemic is the sedentary lifestyle that so many very young children are exposed to. Increasingly, they are plonked in front of the television or given an iPad and left to their own devices.

Add such behaviour to an unhealthy diet and i t’s no wonder that we are raising a generation of couch potatoes.

What is particularly worrying is that a study this week showed that obesity aside, smartphones and computers are, quite literally, making our children ill.

Technology is stunting their emotional growth and making it harder for them to socialise and make friends. The number of Scottish youngsters battling social and emotional difficulties has almost doubled in four years.

Earlier this year we learnt that almost one in four pupils starting primary school is overweight or obese. The likelihood is that these children will remain that way for life. That means a quarter of Scottish schoolchildren are condemned to a life of obesity before they’ve learnt how to count up to five.

And the stats just keep rolling in. Over in North Ayrshire, one in three children is now overweight. Across Scotland, only half of primary school pupils walk to school.

Fat teenagers are at increased risk of type two diabetes and by the time they become adults in their thirties and forties not only are they popping out fat babies of their own, they are also at risk of heart disease, cancer and other obesity-related nasties that help keep the NHS under pressure.

It’s a horrifying cycle, and as our dependency on iPads and electronic gadgets increases, it can only get worse.

The depressing truth is that the establishment of weight management courses for toddlers run by health boards in Fife, Lanarkshire, Lothian, Tayside, Shetland and Greater Glasgow and Clyde, while a repugnants ounding notion, is absolutely necessary if we are to do something to stem the tide of obesity and i ts knock-on effects on our nation’s health and our ever-creaking NHS.

An obese five-year-old may be obese for life, but an obese 18-month-old may just have a chance.