Parents Of Obese Young Britons To Be Informed Of Child's Weight Regimen

London, England (AHN) - Parents of young obese Britons would be kept up-to-date on the weight management progress of their children under a new program launched by the British government.

The updates would be official letters from the school informing parents of the status of their children's pounds, weight measurements and an idea where their child's weight is based on a sliding scale from underweight to very overweight.

The government opted to use the term very overweight in lieu of obese because most parents tend to switch off and pretend not to notice if the term obese is used. Another term substitution to be used in the letter is "exercise" in lieu of "physical activity."

Results of the measurements will be restricted; not even the children, school staff and other medical professionals could access the records. Parents must initiate help if they want to address the weight concerns of their children.

The soft approach of the program to addressing obesity was criticized by Tam Fry, chairman of the Child Growth Foundation. He said it is a mistake not to use the world obese and to rely on a sliding scale rather than providing parents the details of the body mass index of their children.

Fry told the U.K. Telegraph, "We have gone past the stage of being nice, we have got to bring people up short and tell parents, your child is obese do something about it or it will die before you do."