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15th April 2013
11:00am BST
Last week it was revealed that Ireland was the tenth-best place for the overall wellbeing of children but this week a new study has found that obesity among children is becoming a real problem.
The ‘Growing up in Ireland’ survey revealed that a quarter of school children are either overweight or obese.
A bad diet is just one of the contributing factors to obesity.
But an even bigger issue is that those that need help aren’t receiving it as Richelle Flanagan, dietician and head of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, explains.
“We are urgently calling on the government to devise a childhood obesity strategy and implementation plan,” she said.
“Seventy-three per cent of the country doesn’t have access to a child obesity programme and 88 per cent of the country doesn’t have access to a group intervention programme when kids are already obese.”
This week is Nourish Children Week which looks at the lack of HSE childhood obesity services.
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