Australian children are now so fat doctors are removing their tonsils so they can breathe.
A shocking report in today’s Daily Telegraph revealed the toll the obesity epidemic is having on our children’s health.
Westmead Children’s Hospital’s paediatric obesity specialist Dr Shirley Alexander said he had treated kids as young as 18 months, while some two-year-olds weighed 36kg, three times the recommended weight for children of that age.
By the time kids are eight, many need machines to ensure they don’t stop breathing while they’re asleep and by 10, several are having their tonsils out for the same reason.
Other young kids were having hip operations because their joints couldn’t cope with their soaring weight.
“We’ve got five, six and seven-year-olds with insulin resistance and 10-year-olds with Type 2 diabetes,” Dr Alexander told the publication.
“It used to be 30 years ago you didn’t see that until people were in their 40s, 50s and 60s.”
Dr Alexander has spoken out about the obesity crisis in response to the Federal Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) new draft obesity guidelines, which advocate “weight maintenance” instead of “weight loss” for children.
Westmead Children’s Hospital says some children are now so obese maintaining their current weight is not enough, and they must slim down through diet and exercise.
“Adolescents may benefit from youth-appropriate structured gym programs,” it told the NHMRC.
“The message needs to be that any child or adolescent with severe obesity needs to be considered for referral and weight loss.”
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