Child obesity is rising – it’s time to undo the damage done by poorly planned Covid lockdowns

In the last year children have altered their diets and reduced their movements in ways they have now become used to, says Hannah Fearn. It’s time we reversed these habits

‘Locking children in their homes with only screens for human interaction was incredibly poor public policy for child development’ (Getty/iStock)

Pandemic restrictions on socialising and movement have become such an ingrained part of our lives in the short matter of 18 months that it’s tricky now to remember exactly what the first few weeks of the UK Covid outbreak were like. There was the mild anxiety around the first identifiable cases in Brighton and Hove, then the ramping up of tension as the inevitable spread took hold. Finally, we were in full lockdown: only able to leave our homes for an hour a day, and only then to buy essential supplies or for exercise.

Children’s playgrounds were padlocked. Swimming pools were closed. Park benches were taped off. Communal equipment was rendered out of use. We took our daily walks, some started jogging, others began a daily date with Joe Wicks for PE or yoga with Adriene. But in the main we became more sedentary, filling our time on screens and sofas.

And to soothe our anxiety, to placate our boredom, we focused on food. The infamy of sourdough starters and banana bread bakes bore its roots in the ubiquity of our desire to bury deep our bleak feelings – which, for many, included the shock of grief – in food.

For children the change in behaviour was even more stark, given that a child’s natural state is that of motion. In the earliest years of school, 50 per cent of the day is spent playing and learning lessons outside, reflecting their natural desire to explore their own physicality as they learn. With that ease of movement taken away from them, our children began to gain weight.

Figures released this week demonstrate the impact of the pandemic on children’s bodies. A quarter of children aged 10 and 11, at the end of primary school, are now classed as obese, up from 21 per cent a year ago. Only 57.8 per cent are now a healthy weight. Reception age children, who are four or five, have also been badly affected with obesity rates rising from 9.9 per cent to 14.4 per cent in just one year.

The figures do not adjust for poverty and deprivation, but we can with some confidence predict that a more detailed analysis would expose how those children from under privileged backgrounds are more likely to have made the transition into the obese category over the course of the pandemic. One of the great inequalities during the early coronavirus outbreak was access to private outdoor space: those children who had a garden to play in were surely more likely to have maintained a higher level of physical activity than those whose outdoor excursions were limited to just one hour a day, during which caregivers also had to make sure that food and other essentials were secured.

Obesity is measured differently for the child’s body, and some experts have questioned whether these figures are an accurate measure of the extent of the weight issues these children might face once they reach adulthood. But regardless, the pace of change is alarming.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of the system of measurement, it is capturing a rapid shift in weight and behaviour.

The poor design of the first lockdown is now clear to see. We did not know exactly what viral enemy we were facing at that time, but preventing children from playing in the open air, from sharing green space, locking them in their homes with only screens for human interaction, was with hindsight incredibly poor public policy for child development, and hit the poorest hardest. When Boris Johnson says it won’t happen again, he doesn’t mean we won’t need any form of restrictions in place because the battle is over – how could he possibly know? – but that his government has been forced to accept that the first time round it got it wrong.

It was right to lock down but the design of the lockdown was wrong. Its primary goal was the preservation of the British economy by avoiding widespread incapacity, and the continued functioning of the NHS. Both essential ends, but they were not sufficiently balanced with what should have been the ultimate ambition in the middle of a medical crisis: preserving and promoting good human health.

Now they are in the public eye, these child obesity figures cannot be dismissed as an aberration. The pandemic may be an unpredictable cause of the growing weight of our children, but it also drags a long tail behind it. Popular psychologists say it takes 21 days to learn a habit; conversely, any ingrained habit can take decades to break.

In the last year children have altered their diets and reduced their movements in ways they have now become used to. Reopening schools, parks and swimming pools will not be enough to undo the damage. Meanwhile, food prices are also rising – inflation is rising at the fastest rate in a decade, according to the Office for National Statistics – which means cash-strapped families (and in particular those surviving on universal credit payments) will be less likely to afford fresh, nutritious food for their children, compounding the problem.

The NHS has responded rapidly, launching 15 obesity clinics aimed at children and – perhaps most importantly – at their families. Children learn most by mirroring the behaviour of their parents, particularly in the preschool years. Around 1,000 children a year will receive treatment in these centres. But that’s only an emergency measure targeting the children most severely overweight, and consequently at most risk of developing diabetes, cancer or other severe illnesses. It won’t help the children who are larger than they should be through no fault of their own.

A much more radical change is needed to help reverse the damage that handling the coronavirus pandemic has done to child health. It could start with the school curriculum. There’s already an (albeit insufficient) catch up fund to address the slip in academic achievement caused by months of school closures. Another fund should be created to make the changes needed that focus on the body. More lessons taught outside, extra PE classes, state-funded after school sports and movement clubs that anyone can afford to attend. Schools could also become a hub for parental education on diet and exercise, on what child obesity looks like (it’s slimmer than you think) and how to tackle it by changing behaviour at home.

Teachers are overwhelmed and schools underfunded, but there’s no other universal service that will reach all children and their parents. If the government believes in protecting the NHS and saving lives – the mantra of the early months of Covid – it needs to show its commitment to that end now and fund this work, and the people needed to deliver it. Bury it and, like a mole, it will only dig up trouble elsewhere.