OBESITY is a subject very close to my heart, in more ways than one. Having struggled with my weight for most of my life I am also a Slimming World consultant who has motivated and supported hundreds of people to slim.

But this week my heart went out to a distraught young mum in my group who had been told by a tactless nurse at her clinic that her four-month-old baby was gaining too much weight.

The fact that he’d gained four pounds in as many weeks, was cause for him to be referred to a health visitor “for monitoring”. His mum was questioned on what she was feeding him – the weight gain coincided with her weaning him off the breast – and asked to return in two weeks’ time for an additional weigh-in. The first-time mum was so upset that she doesn’t want to return.

But what’s disturbing is that this seems to be a growing trend. Bonny babies, it seems, are no longer acceptable.

Now, I’m no expert, but the beautiful little chap, looked perfectly normal to me. What’s more he’s remarkably content and sleeps through the night. May I also add that his dad is 6ft 3ins tall, so the chances of him being a strapping lad are very much in his favour.

We all know that obesity figures are on the rise and that half of the UK population could be obese by 2050. And, yes, education is the only way to contain this catastrophe. So, making parents aware of healthy eating practices from birth is advantageous. We get all that.

What is totally unacceptable is making mums so nervous of the baby weigh-in that they stop attending. Or worse – it’s National Eating Disorders Awareness Week – that they start to limit baby’s food at a time when he needs every ounce of nourishment for growth.

Unhealthy eating habits work both ways, whether too much, or too little food, it’s still a problem and there’s a very real danger that paranoid mums will pass on their fears to the child and the very thing they are trying to avoid – a weight issue – becomes a reality.

My own daughter was always hungry and became a chubby baby. By the age of three, she was very cute and cuddly, with an enormous appetite. Having struggled with my own weight, I didn’t want her to inherit my anxieties, so I signed her up for dancing lessons.

She’s now 21 and thanks me for that. And having seen her choreograph and perform in a dance show last weekend, I congratulate myself.

A petite size 8, she still eats like a Sumo in training, but the dancing keeps her at peak fitness.

This is not rocket science. Too much food coupled with lack of exercise equals weight gain. But to apply that to a baby who has not yet started crawling is madness.

Leave our babies alone!