Ireland needs to change its attitude to talking about childhood weight and obesity issues, according to weight loss expert Dr Eva Orsmond.

She was speaking after the latest Growing up in Ireland survey found that one-in-five nine-year-old children in Ireland is overweight.

Meanwhile, one-in-20 is obese.

Dr Orsmond has previously called for Ireland children to be weighed in school as part of an annual medical check-up.

Check-up

On The Pat Kenny Show today, she said parents who are shocked at the idea need to change the way they think about weight.

“Parents seem to be quite concerned about the mental impact of talking to children about weight,” she said.

“I think that is the culture in Ireland and it is important we change that attitude to weight and start to think about it as a health measure – the same way we look at blood pressure and the way we need to monitor a child’s growth to make sure the child is reaching developmental milestones.”

Health

She said children in her native Finland are weighed on a continuous basis from the moment they are born until they leave school.

“In school, typically once a year, a nurse and doctor visit the school and the children are all weighed,” she said.

“It is done in a private setting in a doctor’s room, not in front of the class or in front of other children. Sometimes people think this could be traumatic, but no, it is not, it is like a medical check-up.

“That basically means that we know if a child is following the growth charts – the national guidelines – and it is very important. That brings talking about weight to a different level than thinking, ‘this is trying to stigmatise people.’”

Milestones

She said doctors check on a range of different developmental milestones on their annual school visits.

“It is basically a health check-up,” she said. “It is height, weight and other milestones – your eyesight you know, how is the child doing, and if there are any problems, they will hopefully come up during those visits.”

She said the system takes the weight conversation to a “different level.”

“It is not anymore about weight or about how you look, it is about your health,” she said.

“We know that obese children are more likely to grow up to become obese adults and we know what obesity brings.

“Obesity brings high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks, Type 2 diabetes – it brings the chronic problems and it is estimated that 70% of our national healthcare at the moment is struggling with lifestyle-related chronic diseases – even cancer is strongly linked to overweight and obesity.”

Obesity

She said the most important thing a family can do to tackle any weight issues is eat more home-cooked food.

“We talk about exercise, that we are exercising less but I really believe it is more the food environment that has changed dramatically in the past 40 years,” she said.

“We are giving our bodies more energy, more food than we are burning on daily basis, and I think that is due to the fact that we are eating so much packaged food.

“If you look at people’s trolleys it is, unfortunately, full of food with wrapping around it and that obviously means it is ready to be eaten and it is already done somewhere else than in your home.

“I would say the most important factor for childhood and any overweight and obesity prevention is that we start cooking at home.”

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