Michelle Bridges, Sunday Life 

Author and trainer on The Biggest Loser.

To combat childhood obesity, we need to stop the blame game and work together, writes Michelle Bridges.

Image: Extra fat cells ... overfed babies become overweight kids.

I struggle with a lot of things when it comes to the contentious topic of childhood obesity. 

I struggle with the assumption that it is all about children - it's not really. It's more about parents and families. The kids just respond to what's going on around them, and to the food that is available to them and advertised to their vulnerable selves.

I struggle with the word "childhood", which puts a temporal identity on the issue, as if it all happens from birth to adolescence. It doesn't. It starts at conception, as we now know that overweight parents are more likely to give birth to overweight babies. The genetic predisposition to be overweight begins at the very beginning of a person's life.

Overfeeding babies and children brings the age forward at which they start to lay down fat cells. This results in a higher quantity of fat cells carried into adulthood, burdening overweight kids with extra fat cells that they will carry for the rest of their lives.

I struggle with the junk-food industry wriggling around self-regulation of TV advertising to kids. The Australian Food and Grocery Council claims that since the adoption of industry self-regulation in 2009, TV junk-food advertising to kids has been reduced. But a joint University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW study found that junk-food advertising to kids has actually increased since then.

And while preventative health is broadly on the federal government's agenda, it's approach to junk-food advertising has been "vague", to quote Dr Rhonda Jolly in a Parliamentary Library paper published in January this year.

But my biggest struggle is with the blame game. We are all responsible - government, parents, advertisers, manufacturers, educators - and, even at some level, the kids themselves. Being responsible is a way of being, so let's start by being role models ourselves.

Our childhood obesity crisis isn't particularly anyone's fault, and as long as we keep trying to make it someone's fault, we'll just keep arguing about it, and nothing will get done.

It's not about blame.

What steps do you take as a provider of children's services to ensure they are getting a healthy education about lifestyle?