A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy weighing 3st 5lb has been labelled overweight by health officials after exceeding NHS guidelines by just one pound.

Zac Forder’s mother Michala said she was furious to receive a letter as part of a nationwide weight screening scheme, which warned her son could be at risk of developing cancer, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.

Mrs Forder, who advises children about healthy eating in her work as a pre-school practitioner, accused Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust of damning children – and said the letters could push some into crash dieting.

The PCT has been weighing and measuring about 11,000 Reception Year pupils, aged four and five, and Year Six pupils, aged 10 and 11, as part of the National Child Measurement Programme.

Parents can opt out of the scheme, but if they do not, they get a letter telling them if their child is underweight, a healthy weight, overweight or very overweight.

It is designed to alert parents to potential health problems but Mrs Forder said she and other mothers at Edith Moorhouse Primary School, in Carterton, were angry at their children being labelled overweight.

The letter said Zac’s ideal weight for his age and height should be between 2st 7lb (15.9kg) and 3st 4lb (20.7kg).

Mrs Forder, 37, of Hollybush Road, Carterton, said: “How dare the NHS tell me my five-and-a-half-year-old child is overweight, when he isn’t.

“It’s made me furious. It’s a damaging and ridiculous letter.

“All some parents will see is ‘overweight’ and ‘cancer’.

“It’s a very damning attitude. There has got to be a better way of doing it.”

She said she had not told her son about the contents of the letter, adding: “I could have told him the doctors think he is overweight. He could then take it upon himself to start on an eating disorder because of it.”

Last night the PCT apologised for any distress caused to Mrs Forder, and said it was following Department of Health guidelines on the format and content of the letter.

A spokesman said 61 parents had contacted the trust as a result of the scheme, but could not say how many had been complaints.

A Department of Health spokesman said the programme was intended to equip parents with information to help their children live healthier lives.

A spokesman for Beat, an eating disorders charity, said: “There surely has to be a better way for this information to be put across that will make things better, not worse.

“Such rigid interpretation of these guidelines only serves to stigmatise children for their weight and shape.”

  • Have you received one of the NHS letters? Call us on 01865 425423 or email reporter George Hamilton by clicking on his name at the top of the story.
  • RESEARCH gathered by the National Childhood Measurement Programme for Oxfordshire in 2007-8 found that 11 per cent of Reception Year schoolchildren were overweight and seven per cent were classed as obese.

Fourteen per cent of Year Six children were classed as overweight and 15 per cent were obese.

Obesity is gauged by a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI) — a measurement calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared.

Adults classed as overweight have a BMI of 25 to 30, and obese adults have a BMI of more than 30. Underweight adults have a BMI of 18.5 or less.

Children’s BMI is measured in a similar way but most also be plotted on an age-adjusted graph before a final figure is determined.