Every month, dozens of children step through the door of Rakhee Shah’s clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. Often, they and their parents come to her for help with a condition such as autism. Shah notices that many of the children happen to be overweight or obese. She tries to raise the subject sensitively, knowing that it is children from the poorest catchment areas who are most likely to be affected.
Junk food is cheaper, a parent might say. It keeps their child fuller for longer. Yet the parents know that such a diet is problematic. “It’s really sad,” says Shah. “Feeding your child is a very fundamental parental instinct, you can see that it’s really having an impact on them. They’re almost feeling like a failure.”
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