A QUARTER of three-year-old children are now overweight or obese, according to preliminary findings of new research.
The figures come from early data gathered as part of Growing up in Ireland, the Government-funded national longitudinal study of children in the State.
Data from the study published in 2009 indicated it had found found 19 per cent of nine-year-olds were overweight and 7 per cent were obese.
Prof Sheila Greene, director of the Children’s Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin, told a conference in the city yesterday that similar trends were now emerging in relation to toddlers.
Growing up in Ireland is also following more than 11,000 babies as they grow up.
Prof Greene said that while the data in relation to overweight and obesity trends in this cohort were still “very preliminary and tentative” given that all the data had yet to be analysed, the early indications were that around a quarter of this age group were also overweight or obese.
The conference was held to mark the start of a consultation process before a national policy aimed at improving public health is drawn up.
Organised by the Department of Health, the event was attended by Minister for Health James Reilly, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Ministers of State Róisín Shortall, who has responsibility for primary care, and Kathleen Lynch, who has responsibility for disability, mental health and older people.
Dr Reilly stressed that improving the health of the nation was the responsibility of us all, not just of the health service.
He said the Government was committed to doing things differently by focusing on the fact that prevention was better than cure.
Dr Reilly said it cost 23 times more to treat a child with measles than to vaccinate a child against measles.
At a time of limited resources it was important now more than ever to learn from the successes of good public health policies in the past such as the smoking ban and the banning of bituminous coal supplies.
Ms Fitzgerald said she was gravely concerned that children were drinking and smoking from a younger age, and that a “serious” percentage of small children were now also overweight or obese.
“As a State we simply cannot afford the future cost of healthcare if we do not seek to address the challenges posed by childhood obesity, alcohol and tobacco use by our children, given the predicted disease burden associated with these preventable public health risks,” she said.
She said the feasibility of having the calorie content of meals in fast food outlets on display would have to be looked at.