Give your child a slim chance in the fight against obesity

Helen O'Callaghan says weighing scales should be used regularly

BUY weighing scales for your child. This is Kildare GP Dr Brendan O’Shea’s recommendation for reversing the obesity statistics — one in four children in Ireland is overweight or obese.

Parents may worry that weighing their children could make them anxious about their weight or preoccupied with body image. But Dr O’Shea, lecturer in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, in Trinity College Dublin, cites a recent study by 11 GPs in 10 general practices in Leinster: 500 children, aged five to 12, were weighed.