A ten-year-old schoolgirl has been weighed at 22 stone 11lbs in a city where six similarly aged children weigh more than 19 stone.
Almost 50 youngsters under the age of 11 weigh more than 16 stone in the area where the unidentified girl tops the list of morbidly obese children.
Figures obtained by a Freedom of Information request have revealed the shocking extent of the country’s fast-spreading obesity epidemic.
At one school 10 of the heaviest year six pupils at weighed more than a Mini Cooper collectively, and one in 10 children was recorded as obese when starting school.
The 22-stone child from Birmingham had a body mass index of 70 – 40 points higher than the point at which a child is considered obese.
Medics now warn that almost a quarter of children of the same age are officially classed as obese.
The health risks of being morbidly obese include diabetes, osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnea, cancer, cardiovascular and liver disease.
In total there were 11,777 pupils classed as obese in the year six age group in Birmingham last year.
Birmingham City Council Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, Coun Steve Bedser
for the city said: ‘The statistic of one in four ten-year-olds being obese is the single scariest thing I know about the city.
‘It has been clear from day one that childhood obesity is an absolute priority.
‘This is a national crisis and failing to tackle the obesity time bomb is not an option.
‘If the rising tide of childhood obesity is not reversed, the implications are stark for individuals, for neighbourhoods for families and for the public sector.‘
A staggering 23.2 per cent of reception pupils were also recorded as being overweight or obese in 2013.
The 22-stone ten-year-old tops the list of obese pupils at a school where more than 50 under the age of 11 weighted 16 stone or more.
Dr Beckie Lang from the Association for the Study of Obesity said: ‘We have to hope that these children and their families of those who have these very high BMIs are getting the help and support that they need from the relevant health authorities.’
Britain’s childhood obesity epidemic has seen hospitals deal with nearly 1,000 children in the past three years – is now thought to cost the NHS around £4.2billion every year, according to estimates put forward by the Royal College of Paediatrics.
Alarmingly, children as young as ten months old have been admitted to hospital because they are dangerously overweight, according to figures released in October.
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