The chairman of NHS England, Dr Penny Dash, has warned that poor breastfeeding rates are contributing to "staggering and frightening" levels of childhood obesity, and has accused the health service of having "given up" on encouraging new mothers to persevere with it. Speaking at a King's Fund event in London, she argued that breastfeeding can reduce childhood obesity by around a quarter, yet England performs exceptionally poorly on sustained breastfeeding rates compared with other countries, likening the lack of promotion to abandoning vaccination efforts.

According to the Infant Feeding Survey published earlier this year, 86 per cent of English mothers start breastfeeding, but this falls to 56 per cent after one week and just 26 per cent by six months, far behind countries such as Sri Lanka and Burundi, where rates stay above 80 per cent. Common reasons mothers cited for stopping included difficulty latching, painful breasts and low milk supply, with 72 per cent of those who quit saying they would have liked more support to continue. Meanwhile, obesity affects 10.5 per cent of children starting primary school and rises to 22.2 per cent by the time they leave, prompting Dr Dash to call for wider societal action beyond the NHS, despite concerns among politicians about appearing to impose a "nanny state".