How obesity is likely to gravely hurt your child

When obesity progresses to such an extent other illnesses, such as diabetes become a reality.

Diabetes could easily precipitate into a lowered immunity and therefore difficulty in fighting disease causing germs.

The good news though, says Dr. Shchukina, is that if a patient successfully losses the extra weight, there is more than 90 per cent chance that they will revert to a healthy life without diabetes.

"Research has shown that diabetes resulting from obesity can be reversed through adoption of healthy nutrition habits accompanied by proper weight loss," she says.

What does a healthy meal look like?

Any good meal, she says, has to be moderate. A child should be raised to eat a balanced diet, which amounts to roughly half a plate of vegetables, a quarter of the plate proteins and the remaining quarter carbohydrates.

Dr. Shchukina suspects that the Kenyan diet is steeped with starch; with such staples like ugali and Irish potatoes forming a huge proportion.

"That is not healthy," she warns.

And you know what else is not healthy? A breakfast of tea and bread smudged with too much butter.

The doctor recommends lean meals. In a child's case, she says, a breakfast could be: light porridge or one Weetabix or a slice of bread, with an egg or low fat cheese, accompanied with a serving of beans and vegetable salad.

According to Dr. Tunje, obesity in a child will almost certainly cause ill health. It would also lower a child's quality of life, causing sleep difficulties from blocked airways.

It may also upstage a child's psychosocial wellbeing.

"Their peers may treat them as 'fat' and that could cause a psychological crisis, which could precipitate into below average performance in school and a low self-esteem," Dr Tunje observes.