Toddlers may love the Teletubbies but, Jane Bartlett reports, a worrying number of under fives are also taking on their podgy profile.

We're raising the fattest generation of seven to eleven year olds. According to a study published by Leeds Metropolitan University, one in nine children in this age group is medically obese.There have been a number of studies like this which have identified the problem amongst older children but, for the first time, major concerns have been raised about toddlers piling on the pounds. According to recent research published in The British Medical Journal, more than one in five of Britain’s under fours is overweight, and one in ten is classed as clinically obese. Researchers at Liverpool University found that 23.6% of children under four are overweight, compared with only 14.7% ten years ago.

Children of that age are often naturally chubby, with little pot bellies and ringlets of fat around their wrists. But medical experts reckon that too many of these youngsters are now dangerously rotund, and risk damaging their long term health.

‘It’s very worrying because obesity is linked to problems, such as heart disease and premature death. A significant number of these children may have ongoing weight problems in later life,’ says Dr Peter Bundred, who led the study. Basically, fat children often grow up into fat adults. The longer a child is fat, the more at risk they are of staying that way in later life. In the short term, overweight children can have problems with mobility, abnormalities in glucose metabolism, and suffer emotional problems, especially if they become a target for bullies.

They’re not active enough and they’re eating the wrong sorts of foods
Dr Bundred says that changes in lifestyle are to blame. ‘We now have a situation where many mothers work, come home and need to do the housework, so they sit their children in front of the television or video.’

Judy More, a Paediatric Dietician with the British Dietetic Association, agrees: ‘Children are less active today than they used to be. They don’t walk as much, they’re driven everywhere, and they don’t play outdoors as they would have done.’ She adds that few parents cook, relying instead on convenience foods, which can have a very high fat content. ‘Fat and sugar are cheap ingredients for food manufacturers to use,’ she explains. Many of the fast food staples of children’s diets are high in fat. ‘Take fish fingers; they’re fried, so the fat content is quite high, compared to a mother cooking some fish at home, which might be poached in milk or water. Similarly, beef burgers are high in fat, if you buy from the supermarket as opposed to your butcher, who might make his own.’

Check your lifestyle
Research has shown that overweight parents, who lead sedentary lifestyles, tend to have children who follow in their heavy footsteps. This is especially true for younger children, whose worlds are more regulated by mum and dad. If you’re a parent who whisks around in training shoes, your children are more likely to follow your good example. It’s been shown that 4-7 year old children of active mothers were twice as likely to be active as children of inactive mothers; for children with active fathers, there was a 3.5 fold increase in the likelihood of activity.

Television and video games also take the blame
Studies in the USA have shown a 2% increase in the prevalence of obesity for each additional hour of TV viewing. TV stops kids playing the sort of physical games which burn calories, and children might munch high-fat snacks as they view their favourite cartoons. Added to which, adverts for food can affect what you put in the shopping trolley.

When it comes to the Teletubbies
This popular pre-school programme has been damned, recently, by a nutrition forum in Australia, because it’s giving children the idea that fat is jolly. The criticism comes just as the BBC announced the release of a Teletubbies fitness video, later this year. But getting youngsters to dance, stretch and jump, in company with their favourite TV characters, is unlikely to have much impact on a toddler’s waistline, unless the whole family make lifestyle changes.

How to boost your toddler’s exercise levels

• Walk, don’t drive. Do you really need to take the car for short journeys?
• Make sure your child isn’t buggy bound. Encourage them to walk beside you on the pavement
• Encourage healthy TV habits. Limit the hours of TV your child watches. The American Academy of Paediatrics suggests one to two hours daily. Try planning your child’s viewing, so that it is turned on for a specific programme and then turned off
• Give your child lots of opportunities for active play. Children of this age love unstructured activities like running, swinging, climbing and swimming
• Have toys which encourage activity, like bikes, wheeled toys and balls.
• Do active things together as a family, like going for walks, swimming or trips to the local park.

Healthy eating is encouraged – not dieting
Putting children on a diet is not recommended. An increasing number of young children are suffering with eating disorders, and dieting can make them anxious about food and about their body image. ‘We would never expect a child of that age to lose weight,’ says More, ‘but we would hope their weight gain would be slower.’ She suggests that concerned parents can safely increase the amount of exercise their children take, by making sure that they walk more and have lots of physical fun to keep them trim.