Obese toddlers - The time has come to tax killer foods

IT IS a victory for relentless marketing over sanity — not to mention self-preservation and education — that so many of us equate indulging a child with giving them a chance to overload with high-fat, salt-laden junk food and sugar-based soft drinks.

Rather than rewarding the child we are harming them by encouraging destructive and dangerous eating habits.

If this was confined to an occasional binge it might just be tolerable but as figures released yesterday, through the ESRI study Growing Up in Ireland, show it has gone far beyond that.