Parents who fail to control what their children are eating, because of their busy lives, social pressures or lack of knowledge, are the focus of a new anti-obesity campaign launched by the government today. It follows a report from the Medical Research Council's human nutrition research centre linking bad parenting to obesity in children. It identified four areas in which parents need support:

· Parents often have no idea that their child is overweight and know little about the damage that could do to their health.

· Parents sometimes think changing to a healthy lifestyle would be too difficult.

· Parents are under pressure to provide high fat, salt and sugar food, not just from advertising, but from their children who do not want to be different from friends.

· Parents think it is not easy for their children to have an active lifestyle because sporting activities can be expensive and playing out may be dangerous.

The report finds evidence that parents are not in control of their children's eating habits, because they do not want to fight over food, or because they assume it is good for children to make choices. Some 40% of children aged six to nine choose their evening meal as a result. The public health minister, Caroline Flint, insisted that the intention was not to make parents feel guilty or anxious, but to help them act on the plentiful information around them: "I think a lot are feeling lost and a bit of a failure and really worried. They are worried about the issues but not sure what to do next."

Parents in families where both parents work think they have little time to prepare fresh food - the time spent preparing meals dropped from two hours in 1980 to 20 minutes in 2000. If they have little time with their children in the evening, they do not want to argue over food.

Peer pressure, for instance over school packed lunches, leads to a cycle where children reject healthy food and parents appease them with crisps and snacks and use sweets and biscuits "as a substitute for lack of time together or a reward".

"Parenting styles are an important determinant of food choice and of the risk of excess weight gain," says the report. "The risk of overweight among children aged 4.5 years is significantly greater among parents classed as permissive (indulgent, lacking discipline), neglectful (emotionally uninvolved, lacking rules), and particularly authoritarian (strict disciplinarians), compared to authoritative parents (respectful of child's opinions, but maintaining clear boundaries)."

The strategy today is aimed at parents with children under 11. It begins with a campaign to encourage parents to try to get young children to eat more fruit and vegetables, featuring the actor Patsy Palmer.

Keep trying...

Some of the Top Tips for Top Mums that go online today at www.5aday.nhs.uk:

· Hide vegetables in pasta sauces.

· Make food for children fun - spread low-fat cream cheese on a celery stick, sprinkle it with raisins and call it "ants on a log".

· Invent stories about the vegetables - make believe that parsnips are chips and call spaghetti bolognese "worms".

· Give your children chopped-up fruit while they are watching TV. They will eat a whole apple without even noticing.

· Use frozen and canned fruit and vegetables, which are just as nutritious as fresh ones. Freeze small amounts of mashed-up vegetables to save time.

· Buy fruit and vegetables in season, when they are cheaper.

· Keep trying...