The government is considering proposals to warn parents if their child is overweight, it has emerged.
The Department of Health revealed that parents may be automatically alerted if their child is overweight at the ages of five and ten unless they choose to opt out of the scheme.
Under the current system, children are weighed at those ages, but parents are only told the results if they request them.
A government spokeswoman said: "Tackling child obesity is a government priority and the weighing and measuring programme is an important element of this.
"We need to take this further and help parents to understand the importance of healthy weight for their families and support them to make them to make lifestyle changes."
A report published last week by the Foresight Programme warned that, if the current rate of weight gain prevails, 60 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women will be clinically obese by 2050.
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