Over-feeding children 'is abuse'

A group of doctors are calling for parents who allow their kids to get too overweight to be held responsible.

They think that parents who over-feed their kids are not looking after them properly and - in extreme cases - their children should be taken into care.

They say parents who over-feed their kids should be treated in the same way as those who under-feed their kids.

"There is outrage if a child is skin and bone but it only happens in extreme cases with obese children," said one.

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Roughly one in four kids in the UK is considered to be obese or overweight.

The doctors made their call following a string of cases including a two-year-old child who weighed four stone.

Rare

Health experts think it would be rare that kids would be taken into care and that everything should be done to help parents understand what they need to do to make their children more healthy.