Parents who allow their children to eat too much could be considered guilty of neglect, similarly to those who don't feed their children at all, say representatives of The Local Government Association. The group is calling for development of new guidelines helping authorities deal with the issue.

"Councils are increasingly having to consider taking action where parents are putting children's health in real danger," said David Rogers, the Local Government Association's public health spokesman, noting that by 2012 an estimated million British children could be obese and by 2025 about a quarter of all boys could be grossly overweight.

The association proposed that a minimum, social services or health authorities should talk to families of overweight children, giving them advice and showing them how to provide healthy meals. "But in the worst cases (the children) would need to be put on 'at risk' registers or taken into care," said Rogers.