Diet - a social divide that starts aged two

Published on Monday 18 February 2008 21:00

CHILDREN under the age of two are regularly eating sugary foods and drinks as an established part of their diet, a major study has warned.

And in a stark illustration of a growing social divide, the Scottish Government report links poverty and a low level of a parental education to the amount of sugary snacks they give their children.

The survey found 66 per cent of children whose mothers had no qualifications ate sweets and chocolate once a day or more – but only 37 per cent of youngsters whose mothers had Higher grades or above had such foods daily.

Growing Up in Scotland, a survey of more than 7,000 parents designed to create the most comprehensive overview of childhood in Scotland, also revealed that 23 per cent of youngsters aged under four are overweight.

The latest findings come just months after a major international study placed Scotland second only to the US among the world's developed nations for obesity.

The Growing Up in Scotland survey also showed 90 per cent of children ate sweets or chocolates at least once a week, and 43 per cent once a day or more.

And although 85 per cent of respondents said they had received information on children's diets and healthy eating, only 11 per cent said what they gave their children to eat depended on their knowledge of cooking.

Experts expressed alarm and warned parents are storing up major problems for the future health of their youngsters.

Nutritionist Carina Norris urged action to end the "worrying" link between poverty and poor diet. She said: "It's something, especially in Scotland, that we need to address. There are whole areas of the country where it is harder to find healthy food."

She described the amount of sugar children are consuming as a sign that the diet of the youngest Scots is "going off the rails". She said: "Usually children get more overweight as they get older, so to actually find that high percentage at such a young age is very worrying."

Ms Norris demanded action on why the healthy eating message was not being listened to.

She said: "There's a real need to know why these people are not following the advice because we so desperately need them to do so."

Growing Up in Scotland reveals lack of activity may contribute to the obesity epidemic, with 63 per cent of children aged 22 months watching television every day. Children from lower-income households, or with parents without educational qualifications, were more likely to demonstrate difficult behaviour.

And the report warns the level of parental education needs to be raised to prevent the poor health of children from deprived backgrounds.

Hazel Ross, the national co-ordinator of Counterweight, a group which was set up in 2000 to tackle obesity in adults, said it is expanding its efforts this year to look at the impact its efforts are having on overweight parents' children.

She said that what happens in the home has more influence on the way children eat than any messages coming from nurseries or schools.

As parents struggle to eat more fruit and vegetables and give up fatty, sugary snacks themselves, they also allow their offspring to have unhealthy food.

"I know in England there has been a huge focus on schools and vending machines, but my argument would be you have to start in the home, because by the time the kids get to school they already have their habits developed."

And she warned of the persisting myth that growing children would easily burn off high-calorie food.

She added: "Clearly, we are finding they are not running it off as they once would have done when they were perhaps more active."

The report found that 43.2 per cent of the children in the survey, who were all aged under four, had sweets or chocolates once a day or more, with 90 per cent having these at least once a week.

In addition, 90 per cent of children ate crisps or savoury snacks at least once a week, with 45.6 per cent eating these at least once a day.

The Scottish Government has launched a Scottish Diet Action Plan to improve the nation's health, alongside a national physical activity strategy called Let's make Scotland more Active.

Over the next three years, 56.5 million has been promised for initiatives dedicated to tackling obesity, healthy eating and physical activity including "family-focused intervention".

An obesity action plan will be published early this year, providing further details of these initiatives.

Adam Ingram, Scotland's children's minister, yesterday said the number of youngsters eating junk food was "a concern".

He said tackling the "serious problem" of obesity was a high priority for the Scottish Government.

Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, called for more support for parents to encourage their children to eat healthily.

This is the first time that questions about diet have been included in the Growing Up in Scotland survey – which is tracking some 8,000 families of children.

Researchers spoke to parents who had children aged approximately 22 months and also to those who had children aged about 46 months.

We are great believers that if you put out fruit children will eat it

HEALTHY food choices for their two daughters come naturally to Jo Duncan, who is a GP, and her husband, Ross.

The Edinburgh couple have been taking part in the Growing Up in Scotland survey since it began in 2005. Their daughters, Isla, three, and Maisie, two, are rarely given unhealthy snacks.

Mr Duncan, 32, said: "We agreed to take part in the survey because we wanted to help out and we were happy to give our perspective of what it's like bringing up our girls. They rarely get any kind of sugary sweets. We only give them chocolate every now and again.

"They might get a little bit of chocolate a couple of times a week, but we don't buy them a big bar; we just give them a couple of chocolate pennies, or something like that."

Mr Duncan said that both the girls were a healthy weight for their age.

He said: "If they have toast, we will give them butter, because it is good for them to have some fats. And obviously they have full-fat milk. But the kind of foods they tend to eat are lots of pasta dishes and stews.

"We tend to make everything ourselves, so we don't buy ready-meals for them."

However, he believes their example is atypical of parents with young children.

Mr Duncan said: "If you go out, you tend to see other parents putting crisps and chocolate out for the children to nibble on.

"We are great believers that if you put out fruit the children will eat it.

"The girls went to a pantomime recently and all the mothers had chocolate for their kids, but Jo just had fruit for ours," he said.

"Fortunately, Isla isn't interested in all the rubbish the other kids were eating; she was quite happy having her fruit."

Mr Duncan believes that a lot of parents feel they have to give their children treats to keep them happy.

However, he did not believe that was necessary, saying: "It just goes the other way; it makes it more difficult."

The girls also rarely watch television, unlike most of the children whose parents were surveyed.

"They hardly ever watch it, really. Maisie just doesn't watch it at all because we never really put it on," Mr Duncan said.

"They play together quite well, although Isla's going through a phase when she might watch 15-20 minutes of Stuart Little before bed," he went on.

"They don't watch anything during the day, because usually Jo is out and about with them and getting them involved in doing things."

In their spare time, the family enjoy walking in the countryside because the girls like seeing the horses and sheep in the fields.