NSW Health campaign to educate parents on how to keep young kids healthy

A NEW NSW Health campaign has been set up to help educate parents on simple changes they can make in their young children’s lives to prevent unhealthy weight gain. Here is what parents are doing wrong.

JUST a couple of biscuits a day or half a can of soft drink is enough to tip a child into an unhealthy weight range but busy parents are often confused about the issue and how to fight it.

Now a new NSW Health campaign is set to help educate parents on simple changes they can make in their young children’s lives to prevent unhealthy weight gain.

Targeting the “energy gap” — the difference between energy consumed in food and burned up with exercise — will be key to the campaign after research found parents were desperate for practical tips but confused about the basics such as serving sizes.

Parents are desperate for tips on how to prevent their child from gaining weight. Picture: iStock

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Studies show that if children from two-years-old consume just two extra sweet biscuits or half a can of soft drink a day they will gain an unhealthy amount of weight by age six. But this can be combated with just 20 minutes of walking a day.

By age two, one-in-five children is overweight in NSW with 21.5 per cent of all youngsters overweight or obese. NSW Health’s centre for population health executive director Dr Jo Mitchell said the campaign will show how easily a child can become overweight and the simple ways to stop this.

Around 70 per cent of parents with an overweight child think they are “about the right weight” as do 30 per cent of parents of obese children.

“It is less in the public consciousness … something as small as 200-300kj above a child’s requirement a day is enough for unhealthy weight gain,” she said.

“It’s important to have that increased awareness that it really is small changes that can really help us here … we’re wanting to better tailor our communication.”

Just half a can of soft drink is enough to tip a child into an unhealthy weight range. Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

NSW Health focus groups found parents want “real people” — not celebrities — as role models and know they need help to understand what food and how much they should be feeding their children, especially kids under three.

They also admitted to having little knowledge of “hidden” fats and sugars and underestimate how much unhealthy food their family is eating. Parents not realising their child was overweight is also an issue.

“People care about the issue but don’t necessarily see it as an issue for them or their family,” Dr Mitchell said.

Kiandra Oppedisano with her kids 7-month-old Mila, Alyse, 9, and Lucus, 12, said buying healthy food can be expensive. Picture: Jonathan Ng

In NSW 70 per cent of parents with a child above a healthy weight think their child is “about right” — a view shared by 30 per cent of parents with an obese child.

The department is drafting the state’s next Healthy Eating and Active Living Strategy to reduce childhood overweight and obesity by five per cent by 2025.

Gladseville mum Kiandra Oppedisano, 41, prioritises cooking healthy food but said there can be a lot of conflicting information.

“These days there’s a lot more talk around kids being overweight so you do think about it … the hard thing is a lot of healthy food is more expensive and people are time poor so can struggle to cook themselves.”

Originally published as NSW Health campaign to educate parents on how to keep young kids healthy