Call for government to offer better lifestyle advice to tackle childhood obesity

The latest report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on A Fit and Healthy Childhood has put forward 100 recommendations for improving the health and wellbeing of children, many focused on stopping the rise in the number of overweight children.

Being called for is the appointment of a cross-government children’s minister, based in the Cabinet Office, to co-ordinate improved investment in support for babies and toddlers and to combat childhood obesity across departments and the devolved UK governments.

The group also wants to see better training among healthcare professionals in supporting overweight children with a strong focus on intervening at the earliest stage and promoting play.

In addition, a ministerial taskforce to create a national framework on early years nutrition and lifestyle should be created, while government should offer parents guidance on the impact of screen use in relation to sleep and reducing obesity. Advice could include recommending TVs and mobile phones are banned from children’s bedrooms.

Improved mental health support, particularly for pregnant women and new mothers is also being called for. All councils should include maternity issues in their health and wellbeing strategies and substance misuse strategies, the report adds.

The group calls for better training for midwives and maternity support workers around breast and bottle feeding and insist there is equal support for women “regardless of their chosen method of feeding”.

Measures to encourage breastfeeding include mothers being entitled to paid breaks at work and provided with facilities to feed their child or store milk. This would require an amendment to the 2010 Equality Act.

Report author and former Labour MP Helen Clark, says investment in ensuring children get a healthy start in life will save taxpayers in the long term.

She said: “It’s not rocket science to work out that getting it right for young families from the outset will reap financial rewards. The way children develop is set in those very early years – and even prior to birth. The cost to the Exchequer of failure to invest at that time can incur massive expenditure across the life course and an unwarranted burden on social services, health, education, benefit and the criminal justice systems.

“This isn’t ‘motherhood and apple pie’, it’s what business people worldwide have been saying for some time now.”

The report details latest Scottish government figures that show 29 per cent of two- to 15-year-olds are at risk of being overweight and one in eight children spend more than four hours a day watching television or another screen.

The report recommendations were drawn up with the help of a working group comprised of academics, health and education specialists and representatives from the food and drink industry, and was sponsored by The University of Northampton.