Desperate NHS urges parents to keep children fit by exercising during TV advert breaks

They are also told to discourage snacking in front of the TV and refrain from giving children treats as a reward.

The advice comes in an NHS leaflet aimed at curbing obesity. Called 'Your Child's Weight', it gives a series of tips which underline how seriously the Department of Health views the child obesity epidemic.

Discouraged: Snacking while viewing

However, the leaflet had to be shelved after parents criticised some advice as 'patronising' and 'alarmist'.

One tip was: 'Encourage your child to get up and move around during the adverts.'

Another recommendation was that children should drink only water and milk during the day rather than any other drinks - including juice and squash.

A focus group of adults which considered the leaflet thought it 'unrealistic' that children would drink largely water.

They also raised objections to part of the leaflet which quizzed parents on their family eating habits to determine whether children were at risk of becoming overweight.

One question required  parents to answer true or false to the statement 'food is not used to reward good behaviour in our family'.

But some parents felt it was 'unrealistic not to use food in this way' and said the question implied poor parenting skills.

One said: 'I've almost been made to feel guilty. I don't think there's anything wrong if my little girl's being given a packet of chocolate buttons on a Sunday.'

In a report on parents' attitude to the leaflet, BMRB market researchers noted: 'The Healthy Habits Quiz was felt to have a strict scoring system that meant most children were at risk of becoming overweight. Related to this, the tone was viewed as alarmist as the use of words such as "risk" could be frightening for parents and create unnecessary anxiety.'

The leaflet was produced as part of the school weigh-ins programme where children aged five and 11 are weighed and measured at school to map the extent of obesity and check progress in curbing it.

The most recent exercise found that one child in ten is obese by the time of starting primary school.

The leaflet, which would have been handed to all parents wishing to receive their child's height and weight details, never got beyond the market research stage after mixed views were expressed by the focus group.

The market research report said: 'It was argued that the tone of the leaflet communicated an underlying message that parents whose children were overweight or at risk of becoming so were "bad parents''.

Parents suggested that the leaflet could be frightening for a child due to references to obesity and risk.'

Health officials said the leaflet 'was not developed as a Government leaflet for real use'.

An alternative leaflet which has gone out to tens of thousands of families contains fewer detailed tips and no quiz.