A weighty subject

Child obesity is on an inexorable upward trend, exacerbated by issues of social class and income. But what can be done to counteract it? Catherine Healy speaks to medical experts who are trying to find the answer

Some 5 per cent of seven to eight-year-olds in Ireland suffer from obesity Pic: Patrick Browne

That child obesity has reached epidemic proportions is by now a truism. Every few weeks, the issue elbows its way back up to the surface — picked apart in studies, debates, tv shows. Still, its scale remains unsettling for those working on the ground.

Dr Grace O’Malley, a research lecturer at RCSI, remembers changing her views on surgical treatment not long after beginning work in the field. Underage patients in Ireland have no ...