One in every four chil­dren in Trinidad and To­ba­go is over­weight or obese, Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe warned on Sun­day as he called for greater em­pha­sis on phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty and health­i­er eat­ing to com­bat the coun­try's grow­ing child­hood obe­si­ty cri­sis.

Speak­ing at the open­ing of a new­ly out­fit­ted play­room at the Wendy Fitzwilliam Pae­di­atric Hos­pi­tal, Dr Bo­doe said ap­prox­i­mate­ly 25 per cent of the na­tion's chil­dren are over­weight or obese, with phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty play­ing a ma­jor role.

He said child­hood obe­si­ty is no longer sim­ply a mat­ter of ap­pear­ance or fit­ness but is now con­tribut­ing to the ear­ly on­set of non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases (NCDs), in­clud­ing di­a­betes, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease and cer­tain can­cers.