Doctors said today that childhood obesity should be treated as an act of neglect by parents as reports claimed that obesity had played a part in 20 child protection cases last year.
A group of GPs from Rotherham, South Yorkshire has tabled a motion to the BMA's annual meeting later this month opening the way for social workers to step in when children become obese.
The motion says: "The government should consider childhood obesity in under 12s as neglect by the parents and encourage legal protection for the child and action against those parents."
It raises the prospect of more cases such as that of Conor McCreaddie, the 89kg (14st) eight-year-old from Wallsend, Tyne & Wear, whose mother was told that she would lose custody of the boy unless he lost weight.
Rotherham GP Dr Matt Capehorn put forward the motion to the BMA meeting as a result of his own experience of running an obesity clinic.
He told the BBC: "My colleagues and I were concerned because we noticed a discrepancy in the way society, the medical profession and the courts treat an obese child compared with a malnourished child.
"There is outrage if a child is skin and bone but it only happens in extreme cases with obese children."
Last year, at least 20 care orders were given for children where obesity was a factor.
One doctor spoke of a 10-year-old girl who could walk only a few yards with a stick. He believed her parents were "killing her slowly" with a diet of chips and high fat food.
Dr Tabitha Randell, a consultant paediatrician from Nottingham, said she believed some parents were killing their children with kindness.
In one extreme case, she saw a child aged two-and-a-half, who weighed more than 25.4 kg (4st).
She said: "They said she was big boned and they were, too. I think the perception of parents is a very real problem.
"If you see every other child in the playground with their belly hanging over their trousers, you think that's normal."
But the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health expressed caution and said using care orders in these circumstances would be very rare.
Dr Penny Gibson, advisor on childhood obesity for the college, said: "I think that would be an extremely unusual situation and would be in the context of parents who did not understand the seriousness of the situation and what needed to be done.
"They should be helped and supported to understand that and to do the right thing for their child.
"Very occasionally that might need some statutory intervention but I think it will be very rare."
She added that the "vast majority" of child protection investigations and procedures would not result in a child being taken away from their family.
She said: "Child protection procedures would result in a plan with the family to try to ensure that things are improved and the risks of harm are improved."
At its annual meeting, the BMA will also debate a series of other measures to tackle obesity. These include calls for a ban on the advertising of junk food; a halt to the sale of school playgrounds and sports fields; and compulsory school exercise of up to an hour a day.
