Obesity strategy 'defies logic' in its failure to target toddlers

Neil Leitch, director of the Pre-school Learning Alliance's Feeding Young Imaginations campaign, said there was little in the plan, Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, for children aged two, three and four. He said the early years were crucial to developing good eating habits in children, a claim backed up by a childhood obesity expert from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

"There's a fundamental flaw to the strategy in that there's very little investment in early years," said Leitch. "The government is bombarding us with early intervention and here is an area in which they could intervene. If there's one message that is coming across from the strategy, it's that the government is catering for pregnancy, breastfeeding and school issues, but very little in between. There's a big hole in the middle and it defies logic."