Obesity 'a child protection issue'

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Paediatricians across the UK contacted by the BBC said at least 20 care orders were given for children where obesity was a factor.

The figure was revealed when the broadcaster asked 50 consultant paediatricians around the UK if they believe childhood obesity can ever be a child protection issue.

One doctor spoke of a 10-year-old girl who could walk only a few yards with a stick.

He believed her parents were "killing her slowly" with a diet of chips and high fat food, the BBC said.

Some doctors now believe extreme cases of overfeeding a young child should be seen as a form of abuse or neglect, according to the report.

A group of doctors in Rotherham are calling for obesity in under 12s to be designated an act of neglect and for action against those parents, the BBC said.

They are set to call for the move at the British Medical Association's annual meeting later this month.

Rotherham GP Dr Matt Capehorn put forward the motion as a result of his own experience of running an obesity clinic.

He told the BBC: "My colleagues and I were concerned because we noticed a discrepancy in the way society, the medical profession and the courts treat an obese child compared with a malnourished child. There is outrage if a child is skin and bone but it only happens in extreme cases with obese children."