Over 20 per cent of Indian children suffer from obesity, putting them at a grave risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, stated a manual.

Recognising the need to provide accurate India-specific information on the subject, the manual was brought out by M V Hospital for Diabetes and Diabetes Research Centre, Chennai, and supported by the Diabetes Care division of Bayer Health Care.

Speaking on the occasion of launch of the manual, M V Hospital managing director Vijay Viswanathan said children can easily develop Type 2 diabetes as compared to adults because they are at a higher risk of developing complications like kidney failure at a young age.

"It also poses a challenge for parents to manage their diabetic children due to a difficulty in taking medication and balancing both activity and food intake in children," he added.

The manual provides comprehensive information on diabetes prevention and control in India, Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity-causes and growth charts.

Evidence suggests that family-based weight management techniques that involve parents and school authorities, with an emphasis on healthy home environment, are more likely to succeed. Hence, the manual will be distributed to schools all over India.

Also, the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre in India for Research, education and training in diabetes, which has co-launched the manual, has planned to conduct an assessment of the knowledge among schoolchildren on this subject after awareness has been created in the schools through the manual.