Watching a four-month-old baby being fed a burger and fries on TV last night was distressing. What’s more, her grandfather had just undergone nine months of hospital treatment for morbid obesity, a whopping 73 stones!!

With this fresh in my mind, the irony wasn’t lost on me when I read a childminder’s profile on Facebook this morning – a day trip to the Healthworks Museum followed by lunch at McDonald’s. Talk about giving children mixed messages.

OK, so both of these incidents are American, it’s not surprising that the USA tips the international scale when it comes to numbers of overweight children, but there is still plenty of nutritional ignorance in the UK too.

Halting the rise of overweight and obese children is one of Sure Start’s aims. In my area there are great weaning workshops, nutritionist talks and healthy eating cookery courses for families. I just hope the funding remains for these initiatives to continue. Matching the USA’s epidemic obesity proportions is not something for the UK to aspire to.