With around one in 10 UK children in Reception year and a fifth of UK children leaving primary school obese, the Government is hard pushed to find an answer to this growing problem. 
A Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) report suggests healthy eating food vouchers and after-school activities could be the answer, says the BBC while other people who work with parents of overweight children say different measures work better.
The government’s main approach to tackling child obesity is through advice schemes like Change4Life, set up in 2009 which provides advice and tips for families to encourage lifestyle changes – including recipes and activity ideas.
A government spokesman told the BBC that since Change4Life was started, more than 2.7 million people have signed up and it now has more than 200 national partners.
And while there is some evidence to suggest current measures are working, as the number of overweight under-10s has remained at around 30% in the last decade, people are asking if it is enough.
Measures like these only work if people sign themselves up and motivate themselves to follow the advice and make changes. For instance, healthy eating food vouchers could be given to families with overweight or obese children, to give them an incentive to buy more fresh food like fruit and vegetables, but there is little point in giving families food vouchers if they don’t know how to use the ingredients.
One sure way to tackle the obesity problem is with hypnotherapy. The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) – with more than 1800 therapists across the UK – has a proven success rate in dealing with weight management and better eating plans.
When people see a hypnotherapist for weight loss, the therapist will ask a variety of questions about eating times, what is eaten, what triggers the urge to reach for food when not hungry and why exercise is avoided.
Based on answers to these and other questions about eating, the therapist will then put together a treatment programme and, working with the sub-conscious mind through hypnosis, get the client’s habits changed.
Hypnotherapy for weight loss is about permanently changing food habits, unlike crash diets which are usually temporary fads.
The therapist, in just a few sessions, can successfully change the root of any compulsive eating or lack of interest in exercise, enabling the client to experience a healthier lifestyle and avoid illnesses like heart diseases, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Finding an NCH hypnotherapist is easy. By simply clicking here and entering a post code, the nearest highly qualified therapist will be located.
Estimates by Public Health England show that 66% of adults and 25% of children between ages 2-10 are overweight and, by 2034, 70% of adults are expected to be overweight or obese.