A recent Department of Health study showed that one schoolchild in three is either overweight or clinically obese – and they were the ones who agreed to be weighed. A fifth of the children opted out of their appointment with the scales. I’m willing to bet that an even higher proportion of them would have been wearing clothes labelled “XXL”.

I usually meet at least one fat child a day in my surgery and I can guarantee that they will have been brought along to talk about a cough, a verruca, anything apart from their weight. More often than not the accompanying parent is also markedly overweight.

We learn how to cope with stress on our mother’s knees. It would seem that these children have learnt how to comfort eat from one parent or both. I know that these children will grow up to suffer heart problems, premature arthritis and early-onset diabetes as a direct result of their obesity. I also know that if I comment on it their parent will go on the defensive. They usually make light of it, asking why I am making a big deal about a couple of inches of puppy fat.

Some experts argue that these children will do better if they are removed from the parental home. They need to consider two issues. First, the child may have developed the comfort-eating habit as a way of coping with stress, so being moved to another family will not undo that. Secondly, removal from the family is the most stressful event that could happen in a young child’s life and could well lead to even more overeating.

It is easy to talk about “tough love” and locks on the fridge door but the only way to get to the root of the problem is to deal with the family as a whole.

Martyn Lobley is a GP in southeast London

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