Children that are overweight are more likely to become overweight adults and with this comes increased risks of other health conditions, like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

To help your child become a healthier weight it's important to consider how your family could eat healthier, and move more. You may wish to speak to your child's GP or school nurse about their weight. As children are continuing to grow taller (pre-puberty), health professionals are likely to encourage maintenance of your child's weight. Maintaining their current weight means keeping their weight the same whilst they are growing taller, which will lower their BMI over time.

Children in the overweight range are eating/drinking more energy (calories) than they are burning off through activity, which causes them to slowly gain weight. To maintain their current weight, or slowly lose weight, it's important to use a combination of both eating healthier and moving more. Large, sudden weight losses are not recommended.

Listing reasons why you as a family are motivated to become healthier and reflecting on these, can help keep motivation high when trying to make lifestyle changes.

  • Consider portion sizes that you feed your child - food packaging usually shows the recommended portion size. You may find it easier to buy foods that are already in individual portions as children will tend to eat more if they are given a larger portion. It may be useful to read more about using your child's hand to measure a portion.
  • Eating together as a family at mealtimes makes them more enjoyable for children and eating the same meals shows them that you enjoy eating healthy meals too - children will copy your behaviour so it's important to make healthy changes as a whole family.
  • Eat healthy meals with a balance of food groups. Check out our information on Healthy Eating to learn more about the food children should be eating. Look for ways to reduce the amount of foods high in fat, salt and added sugar that your family eats.
  • Consider methods of introducing new foods for selective eaters.
  • Move more. Look for new activities your family can do together to be more active like walking to school, going to the park or a family bike ride. Children should be active for at least 60 minutes every day. Physical activity is also good for children's confidence, sleep, social skills, coordination, concentration, overall health and more. Find out about sports and activities in County Durham and Darlington.
  • Consider limiting your child's screen time. Sitting around too much can increase your child's chances of putting on weight. Taking this approach as a family will set a good example for your child, and may also improve your family's sleep quality.
  • It can be challenging to talk to your child about their weight. Children can be unhappy with their weight and avoiding talking about it can give your child the impression that they can't talk to you about it. It's important to focus on the positives like what they can do to be healthier, and providing praise for the things they are doing well.