Simple formula to predict your baby's chances of growing obese

In a two-minute test, six simple questions are used to calculate the risk of the baby becoming dangerously overweight by the age of 16.

Factors taken into account include the parents' weight and whether the mother smoked in pregnancy, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

The calculator, available online, is the brainchild of researchers at Imperial College London, who said the test could be used to help instill good habits in parents early on so their children do not grow up to be overweight.

"Once a young child becomes obese, it's difficult for them to lose weight, so prevention is the best strategy and it has to begin as early as possible," lead researcher Professor Philippe Froguel said.

"Unfortunately, public prevention campaigns have been rather ineffective at preventing obesity in school-age children. Teaching parents about the dangers of over-feeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age would be much more effective," Froguel said.

Froguel's team whittled dozens of factors linked to obesity down to six pointers which they claim, taken together, provides an accurate prediction of risk.

First parents are asked for the mother's and father's body mass index