By NATASHA COURTENAY-SMITH

Last updated at 09:35 29 April 2008

At just seven years old, Shane

Holleywell already weighed

almost 10st.

His Body Mass Index

(BMI) was a staggering 36.9,

double what it should be, making

him morbidly obese; the only clothes

that would fit him were for children five

years older.

His weight severely affected his mobility. The

sheer effort of walking up the two flights of stairs to

the family's flat left him in tears.

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Teighan Robertson before fat camp, weighing six stone

Shane has been hugely overweight for years, and

on one occasion, aged nearly three, had to be

admitted to hospital as an emergency after he

turned blue in his sleep: his body weight was

crushing his airways and suffocating him.

By the time Teighan Robertson was one, she was

already too heavy for her mother to lift. Four years

later she was wearing clothes meant for a 12-yearold,

she weighed 6st 2lb and her BMI was 27.

As with Shane, the slightest physical activity was

too much. At an age when her contemporaries were learning to ride a bike, the five-year-old would

have to lean against the gate to catch her breath

even after a short run down the garden path.

Theirs are horrifyingly common stories. Around

four-and-a-half million children in the UK are overweight

or obese, and the problem is growing.

More pre-school children than ever — a quarter of them

— fall into these two categories. And the worry is

that once obese, they will remain so, with serious

implications for their health.

"Eight out of ten obese children will become

obese adults," says Professor Paul Gately, director

of Carnegie Weight Management at Leeds

Metropolitan University.

Not only does this expose them to problems suchas bullying, but it puts them at greater risk of

premature death through conditions such as

diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

How is it that parents can let their children get

so big?

Weight for me! Teighan with mum Sonia after losing almost 11⁄2st

Professor Gately says most parents are in denial

about the real cause of the problem — that they

are to blame.

"They come to me with all sorts of

reasons as to why their child is overweight, such as

a slow metabolism or the idea that being overweight

is in the family genes," he says.

"But this isn't

the problem.

"The fact is that parents are confused by food —

they hear all the messages about fats, sugar and

salt being bad, and they feel overwhelmed.

"They

are often unable to read food labels properly —

simply because they haven't been shown how to.

"Really, the only thing they need to worry about is

calories. It's a simple equation of energy in versus

energy out. If we eat too much and exercise too

little, we become overweight."

Not only do parents overestimate how many

calories their child needs but, he says, they also usefood — particularly sweets, chocolates

and crisps — "to show their children love

and control their behaviour".

"Childhood obesity is on the rise,

largely because children are increasingly

sedentary and parents are uneducated

about diet. While help is available for

older children, there has been little

intervention for pre-school children.

"The more we can nip pre-school

obesity in the bud, the more successful

we'll be at tackling later-childhood and

adult obesity."

To this end, Professor Gately has just

run Britain's first weight loss camp for

children under eight (he's run similar

programmes for teenagers for the past

eight years).

At the camp, which features in the ITV

documentary Too Fat To Toddle next

Tuesday, he helped parents tackle their

misapprehensions and offered common-sense

advice — with startling results.

Not only did the children involved

in the programme lose significant

amounts of weight, but in research to be

published tomorrow in the Journal Of

Atherosclerosis And Thrombosis, their

levels of LDL — the "bad" cholesterol

linked to heart disease — also dropped. SHANE and Teighan were among

the first attendees at the camp

and, six weeks later, both of

them have lost a significant

amount of weight.

But not without their

mothers having to face up to some

painful truths.

"Because I've always been a size eight,

and my two other children are slim, I

assumed Teighan had some sort of

genetic condition that was causing her

weight gain," says her mother, 32-yearold

Sonia Robertson from Tullibody, in

Clackmannanshire, Scotland.

In fact, it emerged that Teighan was

consuming a massive 2,680 calories a

day — 600 more than an adult woman

should eat, and more than twice what a

child of her age should have.

An average three-year-old needs around 1,100

calories a day; an average five-year-old

needs 1,200 calories; and an average

seven-year-old 1,400 to 1,500.

"As a baby, when Teighan cried I'd feed

her," says Sonia.

"I hadn't even realised

you could over-feed a baby or a small

child; I thought they stopped eating

when they were full.

"Then, as Teighan got older, I was

simply feeding her too much of the

wrong food.

"I gave her ready meals, and

always the same size portions as myself

and the other children. On top of that,

she wasn't getting enough exercise."

Shane's mother, Hayley, 27, a

housewife from Barking, Essex, had also

been in denial about her son's size.

Although doctors had told her in no

uncertain terms that Shane had to lose

weight, they tested him for a range of

conditions including diabetes and

genetic anomalies, which only

confirmed her view there was a medical

reason for his weight gain.

It was only at the end of last year, with

all tests having come back negative —

and noticing that her other children,

Louis, five, and Tayla, three, were also

gaining weight — that Hayley was finally

forced to face the truth.

"I knew deep down that I was probably

doing something wrong, but I had no

idea what. I've always been big myself

— I'm a size 16 to 18 — and their father

is big, too, so I kept telling myself that

being big was in our genes."

Prior to the fat camp, Professor Gatelyinterviewed the parents about their

children's diet, exercise levels and

lifestyles.

Over the course of the initial

weekend, parents were put through a

detailed educational programme —

including learning how to read labels,

make child-appropriate meals and what

exercise their children should be doing

— while the youngsters participated in a

range of physical activities.

The camp doesn't promote fad diets

or gimmicks, just advice about eating

less and exercising more.

At the end of the weekend, the families

were sent away with a six-week plan to

follow at home, and received weekly

phone calls during which they were

offered support and advice.

Hayley admits that not only was most

of the information a revelation, but until

the course, she hadn't fully grasped the

ramifications of her children's weight.

Although it was Shane's weight that

had initially spurred her to get involved,

she discovered Louis had a BMI of 22.6

— well into the obese range — and Tayla

was also classified as overweight.

"Professor Gately said that if an adult

had a BMI as high as Shane's, the

chances of things such as diabetes,

heart disease and cancer wouldn't even

be open for debate," says Hayley.

"I was gobsmacked. When Professor

Gately went on to say it was nothing to

with their metabolism and all to do

with the amount of food they were eating versus

the energy they were expending

, I burst into tears. I can't even begin

to describe how ashamed I felt."

Since the beginning of the course,

Shane's weight has dropped to eight-and-

a-half stone and he's now wearing

clothes for a nine-year-old.

Louis has

also lost almost a stone.

Even I've lost half a stone,' says their

mum Hayley.

This has been achieved by simple

style and diet changes.

Instead of

pizza and chips or chicken nuggets,

Hayley prepares healthy meals from

scratch — such as grilled chicken with

vegetables. The children start their day

with cereal or wholegrain toast and

fruit, have sandwiches instead of school

dinners and snack on fruit.

"I've also mastered portion size," saysHayley.

"I used to think that because

Shane was a big boy, he needed big

portions. Now I weigh everything and

have invested in smaller bowls so they

eat less."

Before fat camp, the children had

never been swimming. Now, Hayley

takes them to the pool at least once a

week and sends them out to play on

their bikes instead of watching TV.

Most importantly, she has

set strict boundaries when

it comes to their behaviour.

"I'd fallen into the cycle of

feeling guilty about their size and giving

them sweets to show them how much I

loved them," she says.

"And when they

were being naughty and arguing, I'd

bribe them with crisps and chocolate."

Parents' willingness to give in to their

children's demands was a problem for

the Yadid family from Bushey, Hertfordshire,

also on the fat camp.

Janine Yadid, 37, runs a children's

nursery where she prepares meals every

day, and although she knows all about a

balanced diet, her hard work was being

undermined by her engineer husband,

Rami — he simply gave their children

Edden, five, and Tal, two, crisps and

sweets whenever they wanted.

Although not as extreme as the

situation faced by Sonia and Hayley,

Janine's daughter Edden was classified

as obese, and Tal was already officially

overweight.

"Edden wears you down with her

demands until you feel you have no

choice but to give in to her," says Janine.

"I was more strict than my husband.

"He'd prefer to give them chocolate and

see them happy than say no and make

them cry. I was making the mistake of

letting them snack on nuts, thinking

they were healthy. In fact, the calorie

content of nuts was far too high, so they

were gaining weight."

With Professor Gately's help, Janine

realised she and her husband needed to

work on their communication so that

they agreed on their children's diet.

She also needed to be stricter at mealtimes.

Another issue identified was that the children were asking for seconds and so

ended up having similar-sized meals to

their parents.

"All we needed to do was tweak our

regime," says Janine.

"Although there

were a few tears at first, the children

adapted to the new routine fairly well."

Six weeks after the course, Edden's

BMI has gone down by 1.5 points to 18,

which means she is now officially overweight,

not obese.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Teighan is

proudly showing off her new, more

streamlined figure.

The improvement is

dramatic. Before fat camp she weighed

6st 2lb; she now weighs 4st 11lb.

"The hardest thing was explaining we

had to follow the new diet because she

was overweight," says Sonia.

"I'd always

tried to protect her, and when her

friends called her fat I'd say she was

beautiful as she was. I felt guilty telling

Teighan the truth and she was very

tearful about it, but I reassured her we'd

get there together."

The most important change Sonia has

made, she says, is learning how to read

food labels and count calories.

Teighan now sticks to a strict 1,200 calories a day

and exercises on a trampoline every day.

She is much fitter and no longer suffers

from breathlessness.

"We did have a few problems at first —

Teighan threw temper tantrums at

mealtimes when she saw the vegetables

on her plate and noticed she had

smaller portions than everyone else,"

says Sonia.

"But things are better now,

and Teighan knows what she's allowed

to eat. I knew we'd reached a turning

point the other day when she refused a

piece of chocolate from a neighbour and

asked for an apple instead.

"Its a shame Teighan has had to

become aware of such issues as weight,

calories and diet at such a young age,

but needs must. She's much happier

and loves running around with her

friends. The best thing of all is that I can

now pick her up, as any mother should

be able to do with their five-year-old."

Too Fat To Toddle is on ITV1 at

9pm next Tuesday. For more

information about Professor

Gately's weight loss camps, log on to

www.carnegieweightmanagement.

com. Places may be funded on the

NHS depending on the policy of your

local primary care trust