英國5歲女同體重近130斤 兒童肥胖引擔憂

A girl of five has been taken into care because she weighed more than 10 stone, it was revealed yesterday.

The girl is one of the heaviest of her age ever recorded in the UK and at her peak weight of 10st 10lbs, was more than three times the typical weight for a girl of five.

Yesterday experts criticised the failure to identify the youngster’s problem earlier and said the authorities should do more to monitor obesity in pre-school years.

Details of the case were revealed through a Freedom of Information Act request, but the local authority refused to reveal more information for fear of identifying the child. It is not known whether any adults had been arrested over her care.

The child, from Newport, South Wales, was taken into care in August last year because she weighed 10st 5lbs.

Her weight increased to 10st 10lbs two months later, but dropped to below 8st this September.

Earlier this year it was revealed that more than 900 children, including 101 under-fives, had been admitted to hospital because of obesity in the past three years.

Tam Fry, of the Child Growth Foundation, said the Newport case highlighted the need for proper weight monitoring before children started primary school.

He added: ‘We are failing our children hugely by not monitoring their growth from a very early age. About 25 per cent of our primary school entrants are seriously overweight.’

Commenting on the Newport case, he said he found it ‘absolutely astounding’ the problem wasn’t picked up earlier. Mr Fry added: ‘She would have been out and about and all over the place.

Nursery school teachers will have seen her, probably she has been taken to the doctors several times, therefore the surgery staff and the doctor will have seen her.

‘It just throws up a whole problem of people wishing not to mention weight in case it upsets the parents or upsets the child.’

Mr Fry added: ‘This is the tip of the iceberg. There will be an enormous amount of children overweight, possibly dangerously overweight, where even the parents don’t recognise it.’

Joanna Nicolas, a child protection consultant, said the Newport case was among the most extreme she had heard of in her 18-year career.

‘I have never come across a five-year-old who weighs 10st,’ she said. ‘Why didn’t somebody do something sooner rather than picking it up at this stage?’

Politicians in Newport called for answers about how the girl was allowed to get so fat.

Conservative councillor Tom Suller said: ‘It’s a sad sign of the times. It’s really terrible that a child can end up this way.

‘There are a lot of obese parents out there and their children are ending up exactly the same way.

‘There are other children in this sort of state – it’s a ticking time bomb. A lot of people just think, “I’ll get a KFC tonight and McDonald’s tomorrow”. They don’t consider the consequences.’

A Newport Council spokesman said: ‘The wellbeing of children and young people is of paramount importance and at the heart of all the work that is done by our children’s services department.

‘It would be inappropriate to comment further on this case in the best interests of the chil據英國《每日郵報》12月8日報道，一名5歲的英國女童曾因體重超過10英石（約63.5公斤）被送進醫院接受治療。

這個女童是南威爾士紐波特人。去年8月，她因體重達到約65.8公斤被送進醫院治療。兩個月後，她的體重增加到約68公斤，超過5歲女孩正常體重的3倍多，成爲英國有史以來這個年齡最重的孩子之一。今年9月，她的體重降到8英石（約50.8公斤）以下。

根據《信息自由法案》的要求，當地政府公開了相關細節，但是因爲擔心泄露孩子的身份，它沒有透露更多信息。目前尚不清楚是否有照顧孩子的成年人被捕。

兒童成長基金會的塔姆·弗裏表示，沒能更早地解決這個問題“真的很令人吃驚”。他說：“幼兒園老師應該見過她，她有可能多次被帶去看醫生，因此外科醫生應該也見過她……這只是冰山一角。將來會有大量的兒童超重，有可能是危險的超重，而就連家長也意識不到這個問題。”

兒童保護顧問喬安娜·尼古拉斯表示，紐波特的這起案例是她18年工作生涯中遇到的最極端的一個。“我從未見過5歲的孩子體重有10英石的。爲什麼沒有人早些採取措施？”

保守黨議員湯姆·舒勒說：“這是時代的悲哀信號。一個孩子變成這個樣子真的很可怕。現在有許多肥胖的家長，他們的孩子正在步其後塵……很多人只想着‘我今晚要吃肯德基，明天要吃麥當勞’，卻沒考慮到後果。”

紐波特議會發言人說：“兒童和年輕人的健康是頭等大事，是我們兒童服務部門所有工作的核心。”

今年早些時候，英國有900多個孩子因肥胖住院，其中5歲以下兒童有101名。