DOZENS of obese children in East Lancashire are being sent to slimming clubs by their GPs in a bid to fight the flab.

Children as young as 11 are now being admitted to groups that normally cater for adults, as obesity levels among the area's youngsters soar.

In the first two weeks of January, Weight Watchers confirmed that eight children between the ages of 10 and 16 joined local meetings after being referred by their doctors.

Others attended meetings with their parents but were unable to register as they had no GP referral.

And Slimming World, which holds weekly meetings in Burnley, Padiham, Haslingden, Stacksteads and Rawtenstall has this month launched free classes for 11 to 15-year-olds.

It revealed that its own research showed that one in five members worried about the weight of their children.

In the first two weeks of January it estimated that up to 30 children joined the club in East Lancashire and it predicted that many more will be referred as the year continues.

One in three children are now overweight or obese in East Lancashire, which has traditional problems of poor diet and bad eating habits linked to social depravation, compared to a figure of one in five nationally.

Child dieticians have said that the increasing level of childhood obesity could turn the area into an ill-health hotspot.

Child nutritionist for Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Primary Care Trust Jenny Slaughter said that although it was important to teach children to eat healthy foods in a fun way, joining a "slimming club" may stigmatise overweight youngsters and give them "issues" about their weight and food.

GPs across the country are now referring youngsters to slimming groups but the number of East Lancashire children involved in the scheme is high because of the area's obesity problems.

Doctor Malcom Ridgway, head of Blackburn with Darwen Primary Care Trust, praised the new initiative and added: "This sounds eminently sensible and hopefully they are advocating exercise as well."

Being overweight as a youngster has been linked by health professionals to causing diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes and early death.

Vicky Jackson, who runs Slimming World meetings, said that it was important to have separate free classes for children so that they didn't get hung-up on weekly weigh-ins and the fact they belonged to a slimming club.

She said: "The children's classes are free as we do not think that children should have to pay to be educated on how to eat healthily.

"I have an 11-year-old myself and would have no qualms about them joining Slimming World as the focus is on not putting too much weight on as you grow rather than losing weight.

"The children don't have to come every week if they don't want to as we don't want to put them under any pressure.

"We are proud to be doing something specifically aimed at children as the alarming increase in obesity levels in the young is a public health time bomb."

Jan Mathews, area service manager for Weight Watchers, said: "Weight Watchers adopts a very cautious approach and has decided to only allow children to attend meetings if they have a supporting letter from their GP and they attend with a parent or guardian.

"And while we don't actively encourage children to join Weight Watchers, emerging evidence in child obesity shows that working with the whole family may have something to offer.