Child obesity crisis deepens with kids as young as 10 having HIP REPLACEMENTS on NHS because they’re so fat

CHILDREN as young as ten have had hip replacements on the NHS because they are so fat, shock figures show.

They are going under the knife as childhood obesity levels soar, with one in three now classified as overweight.

At least nine youngsters aged between ten and 14 needed hip replacements as a result of their weight problems in the past five years, NHS data obtained by The Sun reveals.

Knee replacements caused by obesity soared by 46 per cent across all age groups in just two years.

Similarly, weight-linked hip replacements have risen by 22 per cent to 25,600.

Much of the rise is thought to be down to young adults and the middle-aged having surgery much earlier than in the past because of the extra strain on their joints.

However, a record number of overweight pensioners — 28,042 — were also given new hips and knees on the NHS since 2019.

Among children, figures from 2023 show 24 per cent of four and five-year-olds are very overweight or obese, and for ten to 11-year-olds the figure is one in three.

And 38 a day were admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of obesity in 2024 — a ten per cent increase on the year before.

Figures surged during lockdown when children were removed from school, with rates rocketing by 45 per cent just for five-year-olds.

Tam Fry, head of the National Obesity Forum, called our findings “truly shocking”.

He said: “This sort of thing is ruinous for the country because not only are they obese as children but they will get more obese as they get older.

"They will then get other diseases on top of their obesity.

“Parents are hugely important in reducing obesity rates, but when the cheapest food is junk food, and they have to feed their kids in a cost of living crisis, they buy that.

“Unfortunately, the cheap food is the most unhealthy.”