Weighing Up Your Child's Weight

One of the problems for overweight or obese children is the problem of facing up to being fat. It sounds obvious and you would think that parents would be the first to realise that their children need to rein in their weight.

That's not what researchers at Newcastle University have found and their findings go right to the heart of the obesity problem.

According to experts, accepting that your child is overweight is one of the most difficult things to do. Almost 7 out of 10 parents would appear to be looking at their child's weight in one of those fairground mirrors that morphs your body into a piece of string.

The problem for parents is that even if they are prepared to think about their child's weight, they tend to look around at other children's waistlines and compare.

In an ideal, healthy eating world this would probably be ok but given the scale of the problem and the fact that we accept overweight as normal, it's another recipe for disaster on the obesity menu.