8,000 children face battle of the bulge

AT least 8,000 Oldham children are obese. The startling figure was revealed after a four-year assessment of Oldham youngsters, which discovered one in four is too fat. And health bosses say that without action to stem the trend, two out of three children will be obese by 2050.

They have launched a drive to tackle the town’s “obesity epidemic,” and help both children and adults stay healthy. And some of Oldham’s parents and families are set to get involved in thrashing out plans to make it work by giving their views through children’s centres. Reporter Marina Berry found out more.
CHANGING lifestyles have been blamed for children and adults consuming increasing amounts of junk food and taking too little exercise.

The result is obesity, but now health bosses want to reverse that trend by sparking changes which will result in fitter, healthier and happier people.

The shocking survey found more than three times the proportion of Year Six pupils are obese compared with just 10 years ago — and the proportion who are clinically obese has increased fivefold in the same period.

Children are six times more likely to be overweight or obese if both of their parents are, and half of the women who first went to antenatal clinic in Oldham in 2008 were overweight or obese.

There are 179,000 people aged 16 or over in Oldham, and a whopping 42,355 of them are obese, putting themselves at avoidable risk of ill health and early death.

But what is obese? Obesity has a technical definition based on a child’s height, weight, age and sex, and an adult’s height and weight.

In Oldham, the measurements of Year 6 and reception children taken together from 2005 to 2008 showed the same level of obesity as the national average.

But in 2007/08, more of Oldham’s reception children were obese than the national average, and clinical obesity (the top 2 per cent), was around 40 per cent higher than in other parts of Greater Manchester.

Oldham’s Director of Public Health, Alan Higgins, has warned that the numbers of children affected and the fast rate at which obesity is increasing, is a concern not only for individual children and their parents, but for the whole of Oldham.

Childhood obesity is associated with depression, especially among the very obese, increases the risk of high blood pressure, type two diabetes and high cholesterol.

Around half of overweight and obese young teenagers say they are victimised, which lowers self esteem, and are likely to have fewer friends and close friends.

Obese children are more likely to become obese adults, and the cost of the condition to the NHS in Oldham currently stands at a huge £25 million, and expected to soar to £43.6 million by 2025.

The four-year study of Oldham’s children which unveiled the scale of the problem has prompted NHS Oldham to draft an action plan, involving a wide range of agencies, to focus on families and their children up to the age of 19, and looks at preconception and pregnancy.

The ambitious aim is to halt the rise in obesity by 2012, by changing the environment children are brought up in, to give them a “healthy weight and a happy life.”

Mr Higgins said: “Obesity is one of Oldham’s biggest causes of ill health.

“People are eating more and taking less exercise. I understand that people are so tired after work and other commitments that they often do nothing in the evenings, so it’s important they look for every opportunity to exercise.

Mr Higgins said a series of lunchtime urban walks were being developed to encourage workers to walk their way to health. The action plan highlights existing help on offer for individuals and families, and future plans for tackling obesity. They include include ante-natal swimming sessions and yoga for pregnant women, promotion of breastfeeding, awards to reward children for healthy eating, new school menus, fruit tuckshops, school gardening clubs and a challenge to schools to offer five hours of PE and sport to children aged five to 16, and three hours of sport to 16-19 years-olds.

Healthy cook and taste sessions are offered to families in schools and community centres, and parents and carers learn about healthy food and how to cook it from community food workers at Propps Hall and Mather Street schools.

Schemes to boost exercise include free swimming sessions through Oldham Community Leisure Ltd and promotion of the wide variety of physical activity and sporting clubs already in existence for children and young people.

Specialist support services include the MEND and SHINE projects, which offer practical help.