Parents are more concerned about their children being overweight or obese than they are about them engaging in underage drinking or taking drugs.
New research, coinciding with the first year of Safefood’s three-year campaign to tackle the habits that lead to obesity, found parents are gradually improving their children’s diets and increasing their exercise levels over increasing fears about childhood obesity.
Obesity now only ranks behind bullying as the number one concern parents have about their children.
Around one in four primary school children are overweight or obese, while the prevalence of excess weight is also beginning earlier in childhood, with 6% of three-year-olds also obese.
The Safefood research reveals there is now a significant awareness by parents that excess weight in childhood is associated with poorer health in later life.
Just over one in four parents now give their child a food treat at least once a day — down 6% on 2013.
Similarly, the consumption of water by children at mealtimes is up 7%, while the daily consumption of fizzy drinks by children is down 5%.
Almost two in three parents claim their children eat either a half or a third of what the parent eats, while one in eight claim their child eats the same or more than an adult. This claim was highest in the North but has significantly decreased since 2013.
Source: Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner, 31/03/15
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