An advisory panel has recently stressed that youngsters and teenagers should now be screened regularly for obesity and, if they need to lose weight, they should immediately be sent to intensive behaviour. As per experts, the move could change the treatment path doctors adopt for treating overweight children.

On Monday, while issuing the new guidelines, doctors said that proper treatment of obesity in kids can help them lose weight effectively, but it is only possible if these kids get involved in proper diet regimes, activity and behaviour counselling.

About 5 years back, the same panel of experts, the US Preventive Services Task Force, had discovered some benefits by employing the paediatric obesity programs.

"The good news is you don't have to throw your arms up and say you can't do anything. This is a recommendation that says there are things that work", said task force chairman Dr. Ned Calonge.

The new advice and guidelines have been published in the online edition of the journal Paediatrics.

"It requires a big commitment factor on the part of the parent, because they need to want to change themselves, and change family behaviour”, said Dr. Helen Binns, who runs a nutrition clinic at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital.