 The dangers of diets for children |
It's impossible to pick up a newspaper or magazine, without reading something about the latest 'miracle' diet. While it may be acceptable for adults, a new trend has emerged where parents have been putting their children on 'designer' diets.
But that could have disastrous effects on their growth and development and lead to serious illnesses.
You might think that low fat, low calorie meals would be good for a child but it can lead to malnutrition, brittle bones and rickets.
Breakfast discussed this issue with our resident GP Dr Rosemary Leonard and the psychoanalyst Susie Orbach
As well as not giving enough of the right sort of food, there have been examples of mothers not knowing how and when to wean babies off milk, and a healthy diet for an adult being given to a 16 month old baby which nearly killed her.
Ice Swinton from New York was fed a diet of fruit, nuts and fish oils because her parents are vegan; as a result the baby nearly died and her parents were jailed.
When Ice was discovered by welfare workers she weighed only 10 pounds and was at severe risk of having a heart attack.
Worries
Luci Daniels who is an independent dietician said that some mums were trying to apply their knowledge of adult diets to children:
"An increasing number of mums worry that their baby could become overweight and are feeding low fat/low calorie meals that are unsuitable.
"Some mums are using adult diets and healthy eating regimes when choosing what their babies eat."
Research
When the baby milk company SMA conducted its own recent research, it found that only 3% of women thought fat, and 2% of women thought that carbohydrates were the most important aspect of their babies' diet.
Worryingly, more than 50% of mums said they didn't know how to switch their babies from milk to solid foods.
And many women were switching their babies to cows' milk too soon.
Luci Daniels warned of the dangers of weaning babies before the age of four months:
"Due to the immaturity of a baby's gastrointestinal tract and kidneys, and also because co-ordination which allows safe swallowing may not be developed enough.
Pills
But most controversially, is the practice of prescribing the slimming drug Xenical to under 18s.
Department of health figures show that the drug - also known as Orlistat - was prescribed to children 3,000 times last year.
Although not licensed for use by children, a loophole has led to doctors prescribing it at their discretion.
The drug can have some unpleasant side effects, and there have been warnings about the potential for abuse because of the pressures on young people about the way their image.
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