Early data points to worrying weight trend in young children, putting spotlight on healthy eating

Early analysis in the relaunched Childhood Measurement Programme has shown that 35% of children are at an unhealthy weight by the time they leave upper primary school, with excess weight becoming more prevalent as they age.

With the programme in its second year, Public Health Gibraltar is finding the number of overweight children almost doubles between the time they start in primary school and the time they leave.

The programme measures children entering primary school in reception and when they leave in Year 6 and has been restarted in a bid to understand trends and target any concerns.

The data gathered has shown that some 19% of children in Reception are overweight and obese and this increases to 35% by the time children are in Year 6.

The Director of Public Health, Dr Helen Carter, said the trend in Gibraltar mirrors the UK.

The programme assesses children’s BMI and aids health officials and schools to implement initiatives to encourage healthy lifestyles.

Public Health has been working with the Department of Education to include health advice in the PHSE curriculum.

“My team have been into a few of the schools to do tasting days because some children have not tried different tastes and textures of different fruits and vegetables,” she said.

“When you've got a fussy eater, for example, introducing new tastes and textures of fruit and vegetables can be really challenging.”

She recommended parents find ways to hide fruit and vegetables in their children’s food if they are a picky eater, such as blending into a sauce.

Dr Carter said head teachers have become concerned about the contents of children’s lunchboxes, which are often laden with chocolate and crisps but lack fruit.

“If you try and send your child into school with more fruit in their lunchbox, there's a lot of peer pressure around where you haven't got chocolate and snacks and crisps,” she said.

“We need to try and change, at a societal level, to enable, so that it becomes the norm again that it's the healthier food options rather than the calorie laden snacks.”

But with a global industry targeting children with colourful snacks, sugary cereals and drinks with attractive marketing campaigns, Dr Carter understands it is a difficult lifestyle change.

“It's very hard when you're walking around a supermarket with your child and they see all the amazing marketing, the crisps and snack aisle,” she said.

“It's bright, it's colourful, it tastes nice, and it's very hard to say no to.

“But we need to reset our relationship with food.”

She urged the public to reduce any reliance on convenience food, and for a New Year’s resolution set realistic goals such as batch cooking in advance to cut out on takeaways.