Figures from NHS Digital reveal the number of obese babies and toddlers treated in NHS hospitals has more than doubled in the last two years. Doctors believe obesity was a contributory factor in 1,087 patients aged four and under last year, with 61 less than a year old. Their conditions included diabetes, asthma, potentially fatal sleep apnoea and stomach reflux, caused by scoffing fatty foods.
The figure has more than tripled from 335 in 2013-14 to 1,087 in 2019-20. Tam Fry from the National Obesity Forum was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying it was “horrifying” that infants “scarcely out of the womb” are so overweight. He blamed a shortage of health visitors and midwives, early weaning to high-calorie foods and overweight parents.
Fry said, “It's an absolute disgrace that children so young are being treated in hospital with obesity. It shows a societal failure to get to grips with a problem that risks haunting these children for life. We need a complete revolution that gives youngsters a healthy start, from before they are even conceived.”
