Diet and Obesity
Changing Policy and Practice
Childhood obesity is one of the greatest health challenges and previous research has shown that some children are more likely to develop obesity than others because of their genes.
Dr Moritz Herle from King's College London is using our Changing Policy and Practice funding to co-create educational content for parents on feeding their children. Although genes have a part to play in childhood obesity, his team's research has shown that interventions to improve the way parents feed their children can buffer some of this genetic risk. These results highlight that parental feeding practices are crucial to support children, but parents and health professionals are often unaware that changes to feeding practices can bring benefits to children’s healthy development. The Child Feeding Guide is a popular and interactive website which offers support for parents around parental feeding. Dr Herle and his team plan to update this website with new content that will provide users with education on genetic liability, and how parental feeding practices remain a powerful tool to support their children’s healthy growth regardless of familial risk. The website content will be co-created with parents, and health and childcare professionals during separate focus group workshops. |