Government urged to tackle child obesity crisis
Calls are being made for more to be done to tackle Ireland's childhood obesity rates.
Children as young as two years of age are being treated for obesity at some Irish hospitals.
In one case - at Temple Street in Dublin - a child was treated who weighed almost double the average weight for their age group.
Obese children suffer from various health problems, but there are also major psychological effects associated with the condition.
Edna Roche, consultant endocrinologist at Tallaght Hospital and member of the Irish Heart Foundation's Nutrition Council, said that the problem is growing.
"If you look at the data which is coming out from the Longitudinal Growing Up In Ireland study, almost 19% of our three-year-olds are … overweight, and about 6% of those are obese," she said.
"If you have a girl who is obese in the early stages of school, when she's six years of age, there's about a 60% chance that she will be obese when she's 35 years of age."
