A child from Manchester has been taken into care for being obese.
The 5-year-old, the youngest child to be taken from its parents due to obesity in Britain, has a body mass index (BMI) of 22.6 and weighed around 4st 4lb.
The decision was made by Tameside Council, who decided that the parents were doing nothing to keep the child's weight under control, figures from the Freedom of Information Act revealed.
In another case a 14-year-old with a BMI of 30.3 was taken into care. Sunderland Council recently took in another child, but details of their weight, BMI and identity have been kept hidden. The records reveal that four children were taken into care for obesity between 2009-2010.
The first recorded case of a child being removed due to obesity was in 2007 when an 8-year-old girl from West Cumbria was taken into care weighing ten stone.
According to the NHS, one in 10 primary school children are obese, while health experts predict that childhood obesity will cost the NHS up to £6.3 billion a year by 2015. Overweight children are also at a higher risk of heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer later on in life.
"The point at which obesity turns into a child-protection issue is a complex and difficult area, and in these two cases, there were other determining factors that led to the children being placed in local authority care," a spokesperson from Tameside Counci said.
"Parents should be supported to address their child's obesity, and social workers should only act if parents fail to engage with the proposed plan to improve their child's safety and wellbeing."