Five-year-old girl taken into care after her weight reached ten stone

A five year old girl has been taken into care in Wales after her weight soared to more than 10 stone.
The child weighed 10st, 5.5lbs - one of the heaviest weights ever recorded for a five-year-old girl in the UK -when she was taken into care in Newport last August.
Girls of that age typically weigh around three stone, child health experts said.
Newport City Council said the decision to take her into care was made purely on her weight but couldn’t say how she had been allowed to grow so obese without intervention.
By September this year the child’s weight had fallen to below 8st although her body mass index (BMI) was still around twice the normal level for a girl of her age.
The case was described as ‘shocking’ by child health experts, who said the girl had been let down by doctors, teachers and her family
.
Dr Tam Fry, obesity expert and honorary chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said it was inconceivable no one noticed her weight ballooning.
He said: “She has been let down by everybody. It’s tragic.
“There is no way that a child between nought and five can have lived without going out into the street, without having gone to nursery school or the GP and somebody, somewhere along the line, should have said ‘something is wrong’.”
He called on the Welsh Government to introduce annual health checks for children to halt the rise of obesity, which he said was fuelled by cheap processed food, poverty, less active lives and ignorance about healthy eating.
Last summer a Welsh Assembly Report confirmed the rate of childhood obesity in Wales was the highest in the UK with 35% of children under 16 classified as overweight.
“The problem with parts of Wales is that in comparison to the rest of the UK there is particular deprivation,” Dr Fry warned.
South Wales NHS dietician Sioned Quirke, who specialises in weigh management, supported his call for an annual child health check but warned parents must do more.
"Young children don't make their own food choices," she said.
"They don't shop or cook for themselves so we can't blame the child but look at what parents are doing.
"The problem you see most is parents not being aware of appropriate portion sizes for children.
"We do have monitoring of children's health but it's up to the adults and parents caring for them to carry those recommendations through.
"There are protocols but not annual health checks. Annual health checks would be a good idea..
"We can't go on like this. It is shocking."
The case of the five year old came to light in data obtained by The Sunday Times.