For parents to work out if their child is overweight is not simple because weight depends on both age and height and children have this annoying habit of inexorable growth, they just don’t stop! (Our 16 year old son has just hit 6 foot 3 inches – we are going to have to stop feeding him steroid enriched chicken!) The research shows that parents are reluctant to admit that their children are overweight. There is an objective way to avoid any doubt. I recommend that you involve your children in this process – they also deserve objective feedback to know where they are in the spectrum. If they are at the higher end then this allows a less emotional, more ’scientific’ discussion to occur.

As with adults we use, the Body Mass Index, or BMI, calculation which factors in height as well as weight. For children we need a further layer – a standardised chart that brings in their age. Fortunately the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA has done all the hard work of collecting the data. If you go to this link – Clinical Growth Charts – you can download the charts and plot your children’s BMI and age over time. There are a lot of charts on offer, which can be confusing. I suggest you download, under the ‘Children 2 to 20 years (5th-95th percentile)’ heading the Girls/Boys ‘BMI-for-age’ chart.

To work out your child’s BMI to plot on the chart go to this link – Child and Teen BMI Calculator (we Aussies will need to click on ‘Metric’ to switch input data to kgs) and fill in the information. If they are at the 85th percentile or higher they are overweight. This means that they weigh the same or more than 85% of their peers. At the 95th percentile they are obese.

Scary stuff! By the time children reach secondary school a third of all children (32.6%) are obese or overweight. While some have suggested the rates are slowing, these figures show an increase from 2007 to 2008.

I’ve just been researching the childhood obesity story and came across this very solid data from the UK. It is government data from a large national measurement programme which weighs children when they start primary and secondary school. Apparently, officials have previously admitted that its figures are likely to be an underestimate, as the scheme is voluntary, and overweight children are the most likely to refuse to be weighed.

Boys were more likely to be overweight than girls. Poorer, less educated areas had higher rates again, which were balanced down by better-off, more educated parts of Britain. Mothers buying convenience food rather than preparing healthy meals (often because they don’t know how to) was thought to be a major factor.

The problem is expected to cripple their healthcare system (the NHS) in years to come if something is not done rather differently.

Unfortunately, it is likely that story is no better here in Australia as our overall rates of adult obesity are essentially the same as the UK.

In resarching the first book in our Food Loving Kids series on growing healthy eating habits, I have come across all sorts of fascinating research. For example, Dr Brian Wansink’s research found a typical veggie lover either:

• was a good cook
• lived with a good cook
• or had a parent who was a good cook

I can tell you, from a psychotherapist’s point of view, that to fall in the first or second categories, you usually needed to have come from the third. Wansink’s team went on to research 317 ‘good cooks’ (at least one other person had to agree with the self-opinion!) to find out what they were doing right. He identified five different kinds of cooks:

• Giving cooks
• Competitive cooks
• Healthy cooks
• Methodical cooks
• Innovative cooks

All cooks but one, promoted the health of their family. Which one? The Giving cooks – unfortunately the most common type – these are the makers of comfort food! Unconsciously, they know that by giving rich, fattening foods, at one level, they are giving pleasure – if only it didn’t send us to an early grave. Unwittingly, these culinary experts used their skill for evil instead of good (ok, that’s overstating it George!) to make energy-dense, high carb foods such as baked cakes, brownies and other sweet foods for desserts. And what did the other four types do that promoted the health of their families? They used their cooking to increase the variety of foods that those around them ate. Like any great chef, they were much more interested in fresh, wholesome foods as central to this variety.

Wansink gives us five strategies for increasing the variety in kids meals:

1. Buying a greater range of foods for the family home
2. Trying new recipes (including ethnic ones)
3. Substituting different, healthier ingredients (veggies and spices) into favourite recipes
4. Taking kids to the grocery store and letting them choose a new, healthy food (something my brilliant Psychologist wife worked out 15 years ago when this research was not yet a light bulb in the researcher’s thought bubble!)
5. Visiting a range of authentic ethnic restaurants (kids are more likely to try new foods on a ‘special’ night out with a bit of healthy peer group pressure!)

Food for thought (sorry!) for any parent!