Overfeeding has led to children as young as 18 months becoming overweight or obese in the past five years, according to a child care specialist.

Because mothers are having babies at an older age, they are much more mature and have read all about it

“We are starting to encounter obese babies at 18 months… because of overfeeding,” said Dr Victoria Farrugia Sant’Angelo, who carries out developmental check-ups on babies at the Well Baby Clinic.

“In babies it’s not a lack of exercise but it’s about the feeding,” she said, adding that some parents continued giving formula milk to their children for too long while others did not feed them enough fruit and vegetables.

Babies should be fed on demand until they reach six months, but it was important that a healthy feeding routine was then established.

Maltese children, aged 11 to 15, are the most obese in Europe, according to the report Health at a Glance – Europe 2010.

While 29.5 per cent of Maltese children are considered obese or overweight, the EU average stands at just 13.3 per cent.

Dr Farrugia Sant’Angelo, who coordinates child health services within the primary health care department, was speaking while visiting a healthy newborn boy at the Well Baby Clinic, a government service to track the development of babies and help parents with concerns.

Dr Farrugia Sant’Angelo said some 87 per cent of babies born in Malta attended the clinic, but some families were under the wrong impression that it was about immunisation.

“The clinic is about developmental check-ups… and we speak to parents and see if there are problems,” she said.

As more women chose to have babies in their 30s, she said, their concerns focused on the way they would juggle parenthood with their working life.

Younger mothers’ concerns were more about dealing with the basics, such as handling and understanding their baby.

“Because mothers are having babies at an older age they are much more mature and have read all about it. With them the main concerns are how to cope with their life as it is and the baby, such as how to wean their baby off breastfeeding and when the baby will sleep all through the night for them to return to work,” Dr Farrugia Sant’Angelo said.

Then there was the pressure to breastfeed: “It’s not as easy as it sounds. You really have to be determined and people who have difficulties feel very, very guilty.

“So here we don’t preach to mothers. We guide them so that, if their baby is not putting on enough weight with breast milk, they can supplement with other milk,” she said.

The Well Baby Clinic screening mechanism was set up by the Government in 1985 to ensure the country’s babies were growing up healthy.

Mothers who give birth at Mater Dei Hospital are invited to make an appointment for their baby to the Well Baby Clinic, which rotates around health centres on a roster.

Clinical examinations and developmental assessments are carried out at six weeks, eight months and 18 months respectively. The first visit consists of a physical exam, during which the baby is weighed, measured and given a medical check-up.

The second visit is very important since, by eight months, various developmental milestones are visible. This is the age when a disability can be detected in which case the child is referred to a ­specialist.

Babies born in private hospitals or at home can also use the service.