Weigh children as early as two years of age to prevent them from developing obesity, warn researchers

Experts say every child should be weighed as young as two to help cope with the obesity crisis.

Children are currently weighed when they enter primary school at the age of four and when they leave at the age of 11 years.

But the numbers suggest that it may be too late – with over one-fifth of children already overweight at the first measure.

Experts at Oxford and Manchester Universities believe that children should be weighed to two years when there is still time to intervene. And they should then be weighed every year to make sure they do not pbad through the net.

In the UK, nearly half a million children under the age of 11 are obese, a problem that, according to experts, will create a boom in heart disease, diabetes and cancer in the United States. # 39; future. Many parents do not accept that their child has a problem – and those who think they think they "will come out".

Academics are now publishing a study that reveals that adult obesity can be predicted in children as young as a few years old.

Dr. Heather Robinson, director of the University of Manchester study, said: "Evidence suggests that children should be weighed and measured every year starting at least two years old.

"We can distinguish different growth patterns of children from the age of two to five, but only if we measure children regularly.

"It is therefore important to start measuring children as early as possible and continue to do so throughout their childhood. In this way, we can give parents and health professionals the information they need to help children and families. "

The study, published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports, used data from 750,000 children worldwide to establish typical growth patterns. They found that a child's weight before going to school was highly predictive of weight later in life – larger toddlers at risk of becoming larger adults.

Less than a fifth of British, American and Australian children since 2000 became obese if they had a normal or low weight between three and five years, researchers found.

And these "late-growing children" – the 19% who slip through the net because they are not overweight at four years – could be spotted later if the controls were done more regularly, they said.

Dr. Robinson said, "BMI in adults [body mbad index] predictable from the growth patterns of children by the age of two in some children, so we should measure them from that age.

"However, as most measurement programs are linked to schools as a way to access large groups of children, we can still do a lot by making the most of these observations between ages four and eleven.

"Our work recalls that a minority of children are identified as obese when they follow healthy growth pathways, but that a group of children who become obese later than their children IMC is in the normal range between four and five years, so they are missed. "

Tam Fry, president of the National Obesity Forum, said that "millions of children have suffered from inaction" because the UK did not measure children regularly.

He added: "The National Child Measurement Program should be expanded to cover each year the child's growth to detect early signs of overweight, as well as programs to ensure that they do not become overweight. stay no bigger.

"We measure animals every year in our zoos to monitor their health and well-being, but we do not do the same for our children."