Weigh children from the age of TWO to prevent them from developing obesity, ...

Weigh children from the age of TWO to prevent them from developing obesity, warn researchers Weighing children when they start school is already too late, researchers say Academics from the universities of Oxford and Manchester studied obesity Experts suggest children should be weighed every year to allow intervention

By Ben Spencer for the Daily Mail

Published: 00:27 GMT, 26 March 2019 | Updated: 00:27 GMT, 26 March 2019

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Every toddler should be weighed from the age of two to help tackle the obesity crisis, experts say.

Children are currently weighed when they start primary school at the age of four and when they leave aged 11.

But figures suggest that may be too late – with more than a fifth of children already overweight at their first measurement.

Less than a fifth of children in the UK, United States and Australia since 2000 have gone on to become obese if they were of a normal or low weight between the ages of three and five, the researchers found

Less than a fifth of children in the UK, United States and Australia since 2000 have gone on to become obese if they were of a normal or low weight between the ages of three and five, the researchers found

Experts from the universities of Oxford and Manchester say children should be weighed at two when there is still time to intervene. And they should then be weighed every year to make sure they don’t slip through the net.

Nearly half a million under-11s in the UK are obese, a problem which experts fear will create a boom in heart disease, diabetes and cancer in the future. Many parents do not accept their child has a problem – and those who do think they will ‘grow out of it’.

The academics today publish a study which reveals adult obesity can be predicted in children who are just a few years old.

Study leader Dr Heather Robinson, of the University of Manchester, said: ‘The evidence suggests that children should be weighed and measured every year from at least the age of two.

‘We can tell different patterns of child growth apart from as early as two to five years, but only if we measure children regularly.

‘So it’s important to start

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