Treat child obesity as neglect, say doctors

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The call comes after a survey of paediatricians revealed that obesity was a factor in 20 child protection cases last year.

Concerns were raised after a BBC investigation found children as young as six months were overweight due to parental overfeeding.

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Some doctors now believe extreme cases of overfeeding a young child should be seen as a form of abuse

The problem is so widespread that the British Medical Association will debate a motion on childhood obesity at its annual conference later this month.

Doctors will say that, in extreme cases, overfeeding a child under 12 should be seen as a form of abuse or neglect and treated as a child protection issue'.

Rotherham GP Dr Matthew Capehorn, who put forward the motion, said: If you are faced with a child who is severely under-nourished, alarm bells would be ringing, and social services, doctors and other authorities would be involved.

But the same approach is not taken when faced by a child who is obese. Having a child who is overweight poses as much of a danger to their health as a child who is suffering-malnutrition; arguably, even more risk.'

Dr Tabitha Randell, a consultant paediatric endocrinologist at Nottingham University Hospital, claimed some parents are killing their children with kindness.

She said: I get many parents of obese children claiming there must be a problem with the child's glands causing the weight issues.

But this is very rarely the case. Parents seem unable to accept that it is a matter of controlling food intake.'

In one extreme case, Dr Randell saw a two-year-old who weighed more than four stone. Children this age should weigh around two stone.

The BBC investigation also found that, far from deliberately overfeeding their children, many parents did not understand the correct portion sizes for youngsters.

One parent said a friend had fed a baby a McDonald's milk shake with a bottle and a teat.

But the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health does not support the conference motion. It said: Obesity is a public health problem, not a child protection issue.'