Weigh-ins planned for preschoolers to curb obesity

All infants could be weighed at the age of 4 under a new national plan to check their health and nutrition.

The idea is part of the Ministry of Health's proposals for new "ready for school" health checks.

"One of the issues ... is how we will deal with children's nutrition," said the chief adviser on child and youth health, Pat Tuohy. "That could mean measuring height and weight."

Although little information is available on preschoolers' weights, one in 10 children between 5 and 14 is considered obese, and one in five adults - and the problem is worsening.

Starship hospital physicians Dr Paul Hofman and Associate Professor Wayne Cutfield want the fight against obesity taken to preschool centres.

Both specialists, who see obese youngsters with type-2 diabetes, want children put on scales at kindergartens and childcare centres and helped if they are overweight.

"If you're waiting till they're obese, it's too late," said Dr Hofman.

Dr Cutfield: "There's a lot of focus on teens and older children, but in fact obesity tracks from about the age of 2."

Most effort should therefore go into the younger age group, before the problem became intractable.

But it should be steered by a public agency and not individual centres.

Dr Hofman said some American preschool centres ran body-weight intervention programmes. "It's very new, but they're seeing some effects."

More than 90 per cent of 4-year-olds attend some form of preschool.

Early Childhood Council chief executive Sue Thorne endorsed weighing children if it would be part of a screening and intervention programme run by a health agency, like vision and hearing screening.

She thought parents would welcome advice on helping an overweight child.

Obesity Action Coalition executive director Celia Murphy agreed with the principle of weighing children at preschools, but said it would have to be handled carefully to avoid any being stigmatised. And the whole idea would be worthless without an intervention programme for the overweight.

"Where would they go? There's almost no treatment options."

Plunket's general manager of clinical services, Angela Baldwin, said weighing children at preschools would follow on well from the Well Child health programme - which runs until the child is between 3 1/2 and 4 and includes body measurements.

Plunket nurses urged parents of overweight children to seek advice, but obesity was complex and it was unclear what interventions worked.