Alarming Rates of Childhood Obesity Uncovered in Ealing

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with figures significantly higher than national average

Ealing has a significantly higher proportion of obese children than both the national average and most other London boroughs according to the Department of Health.

A new health profile published by the Department flags up deprivation and child poverty as key concerns for Ealing, pointing out 'health inequalities' relating to location, gender and ethnicity, with more obese children living in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

Ealing also has significantly worse levels of tooth decay in five-year-olds, drug misuse, violent crime and more cases of diabetes and tuberculosis.

Hundreds of children had their height and weight taken to produce the health profile, which reveals 11.8 per cent of four and five-year-olds in Ealing are already obese - a figure that compares badly with the national average of 9.9 per cent.

Statistics show the proportion rises sharply in older children, with 21.8 per cent of 10 and 11-year-olds in Ealing classed as obese, against a national average of 17.5 per cent.

It is hoped that targeted intervention will help slow the rise in numbers, but an actual reduction is sadly not seen as being a realistic expectation.

Dr Jackie Chin, joint director of public health at Ealing PCT said: "We're hoping with the interventions that are put in place we are able to slow down the rate of increase in obesity. We have been working with the local education authority to train school meal advisors on healthy eating."

At Grange Primary School a number of programmes are already in place to promote general health in both students and their families.

"We are working with ‘Lets get cooking’ as of September," said Deputy Head, Karen Merison. "This promotes cooking skills amongst families with an emphasis on Healthy Eating. We are also working with Michael Coaker from Thames Valley University who is our ‘Adopted Chef’. He works with year four on cooking skills.

"We have ‘Healthy School’ status which, after a fair bit of work, we achieved this year. This involved not only food, for instance healthy school dinners, but also aspects such as walking to school. Our school council wore sandwich boards to promote this in the playground in the mornings for a week.

"And we are encouraging children to ride bikes to school (safely!!).Our Year 6 students have bike training. We also run ‘Get up and Go’ three mornings a week before school. Parents and children come in and take part in fun exercises to music."

Nutritious and Delicious is an organisation that runs home cookery and healthy eating demonstrations in conjunction with schools across the borough.

"Our message is that eating well and working with food can be so much fun, but the most fun of all is tasting new fruits and vegetables," said Judith Loffhagen from Nutritious and Delicious.  "Children can have such a giggle and in the process they forget that it's green! Cooking is fun and is easy and we often don't need recipes for simple quick dishes. We can just experiment and be creative."

Documentary makers are seeking Ealing parents with obese children aged three to seven for a Channel 4 film about the challenges faced by overweight children growing up in modern Britain. For details call Nina on 020 7284 1246 or e-mail her at ninalowes@twentytwenty.tv

 

 

July 18, 2008