Estimates put the number of obese children in the three-11 years' age-group at an astounding 30-40 per cent in the city, compared with 20 per cent about three years ago.

"The reasons for this sharp increase is multi-factorial, but the genetic reasons have been overtaken by factors like lack of physical activity, more restaurant food and increasing fat intake," explained Chandan Ray, consultant paediatrician at Bhagirathi Neotia Woman and Child Care Centre.

Urban affluence, inadequate supervision of children (with both partners working), the spurt in eating out and processed food are all contributing to increased obesity, say experts.

Add to that the idiot box. "Television has emerged as the living room baby-sitter, with two-to-five-year-olds watching approximately 25 hours of TV a week," said Moushumi Sehgal, of the paediatric ward at the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences.

Milan Chhetri, who treats more adult obese patients than children at his clinic in Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, believes uncontrolled obesity has the potential to take on deadly proportions. "I have been seeing a lot of patients with morbid (life-threatening) obesity. Most of them go to plastic surgeons for procedures such as liposuction, but they end up in obesity clinics as well," Chhetri observed.