Get off to a healthy start

I HAVE just read something totally shocking; a recent study conducted at the Wayne State University in Detroit found that 32% of nine-month-old babies are already obese or overweight.

According to the survey many babies are being fed too much formula to induce them to sleep for longer and or being weaned too early onto a diet of fatty sugary food, pureed chips or the remains of a Chinese takeaway.

Obesity is unquestionably the greatest public health challenge facing the affluent world — a time bomb ticking away — and an increasing strain on every health service. Current figures in Ireland reveal that there are 327,000 overweight children with numbers predicted to grow by 11,000 every year. Diabetes and heart disease are on the rise dramatically. An Irish study by Dr Aileen McGloin in 2007 came up with yet another shocking statistic — 52% of Irish mothers of obese children and 86% of mothers of overweight children thought their weight was totally normal for their age.