Irish families urgently need to change their lifestyles to combat the ticking timebomb of child obesity, President Mary McAleese said today.
With one in 10 children classified as obese, Mrs McAleese warned the country was storing up a host of health, social and economic problems.
“Such a complex issue cannot be tackled by health professionals alone,” she said. “Modern lifestyles may have let shared family meals slip down our list of priorities but now we can see the price being paid by some of our children.
“It is time to rethink and reorganise our family lives around a much greater focus on healthy living and healthy eating.”
The President told an international conference on childhood obesity in Dublin many people failed to realise the scale of the problem.
“The rise in obesity has been described by the World Health Organisation as a global epidemic - a word that is currently all over the news in relation to swine flu, but for some reason the ticking time bomb that is the obesity epidemic does not raise the same level of alarm,” she added.
More than 20 international obesity experts will deliver speeches on prevention and treatment during the three-day Moving Towards Health event.
Conference organiser and leading paediatrician Prof Hilary Hoey called for more funding to tackle the problem.
“There is a huge need for more resources for prevention and health promotion, for research and for early intervention for those who are overweight. We also need more work in the community — families need to be educated on healthy diet and exercise, and schools also need to promote exercise.”
Parents had a key role to play, Prof Hoey added.
PA