Families struggling with children’s weight

Children in the most economically disadvantaged households are more likely to be obese.
That is according to the latest Growing Up in Ireland survey which also found that children who spend a lot of time in front of the TV are overweight.
The study focused on how 5-year-olds and their families are faring across a range of areas including well-being, diet and with family circumstances.
Aisling Murray is one of the authors of the Growing Up in Ireland project.
“For children who are spending more than three hours a day on a typical weekday watching TV, playing with smartphones – that kind of amount of screen time in total – we see that they’re eating more snack foods, they’re more likely to be obese and they’re also more likely to be in the problem range on a measure of behaviour as well” she said.
“That together is quite a worrying package” she added.