Rising obesity rates are widely viewed as the biggest health crisis facing the Western world. Prevention is better than cure, so doctors are focused on stopping children from getting overweight .

But how to do it? Many countries have programme aimed at parents of young children, such as healthy eating sessions, exercise groups , and advice on weaning foods and screen time .

There’s just one problem: none of it is effective, a review of 17 child obesity prevention programmes from around the world has concluded. New Feature

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“Trying to prevent obesity very early on at the family level doesn’t really seem to work,” said Professor Anna Lene Seidler, a child health researcher at the University of Rostock in Germany, who was involve

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