Managing weight in under 5s
Child weight management is an important public health issue for which no single organisation has responsibility.
Organisations can however work together and every professional who has contact with the under 5s can take responsibility for their part in supporting families and children. The modules in this online resource have provided you with information on why child weight in the early years is important, how to identify weight issues in young children, and how to communicate with parents/carers about their child’s weight and related lifestyle issues (i.e., physical activity and diet).
By pulling together this information, you now have the evidence-based knowledge and skills to support families to promote a healthy weight in pre-school children.
Whether you work in healthcare or early years services, try asking yourself “what can you do to help this family manage their child’s weight?”
Promoting healthy child weight involves both:
- universal care to ensure every child develops healthy eating behaviours and stays physically active
- targeted care for children whose weight becomes a concern
Faq Items
Steps you can take to promote a healthy weight for every child
Steps you can take to support a child when weight becomes a concern
Supporting parents/carers own health and behaviours
Whilst the focus of HealthyWEY is on the health of the child, a young child cannot change their behaviours in isolation. Therefore it is important to approach healthy lifestyle change as a whole family process.
Much of the information within this toolkit is relevant for helping parents/carers change their own physical activity and dietary behaviours, therefore you can support them to make changes by considering their lifestyles within your conversations.
It might be helpful also to find out about local adult services in your area that could offer additional support. For example, the NHS often offers weight management services for adults living with obesity.
Other sources of support could include your local leisure services (for physical activity opportunities) and national initiatives such as parkrun that offer free and accessible activities for the whole family.
Weight, physical activity and diet can be emotive topics and there may be times where you have concerns for parents/carers’ emotional health. In such instances, you can support parents/carers by suggesting they see their GP or signposting them to organisations such as MIND.
