An eight-year-old British boy who weighs 90kg will be allowed to stay with his mother after social workers decided against taking him into care on Tuesday.
Connor McCreaddie, whose diet is largely made up of junk food such as chips and curry, faced being looked after by North Tyneside Council in north-east England.
The authority has a legal duty to step in if it suspects a child is suffering or likely to suffer ”significant harm” but it instead reached a formal agreement with his family on how he should be cared for on Tuesday.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt spoke out on the case, saying it was important that the ”growing threat to this child’s health and happiness” was tackled.
Connor’s mother, 35-year-old Nicola McKeown, has said she has consulted a dietician, but to no avail.
”I don’t see how they can say we are not doing enough when everyone is rallying around trying to do something for Connor,” she told ITV television.
The boy’s grandmother, Barbara Bake, added that her daughter had become depressed because of the situation.
”He takes food out of the fridge the minute you turn your back … we have the moods and the tantrums and the slamming the doors and ‘I’m going upstairs and I don’t want to speak to anybody’, ” she said.
”There are days where she will say in response to Connor’s demands: ‘Just take another bag of crisps’.”
Doctors have warned that the boy faces an early death unless he loses significant amounts of weight. – Sapa-AFP