Parents 'ought to be told if their child is obese' survey results show

Nine out of ten people say that parents should be told if their children are obese, according to a new survey.

Almost 90 per cent of those polled believed that parents should be told the results of weight and height measurements made under the Child Measurement Programme, and more than 70 per cent said that the Government should abandon its plan to allow parents to opt out of being told.

For the past two years, children aged 6 and 11 have been weighed and measured as part of government plans to tackle childhood obesity. But parents have not been told the results. New legislation has been introduced under which the Government will tell parents the results, but it will still be possible to opt out of being told.

The plans have been criticised by the Child Growth Foundation, which says that the Department of Health has been far too reluctant to give parents the facts.

The new poll, carried out by the media agency MPG, used a research panel of a hundred families, each of two adults and up to four children.