Children as young as 10 needing knee and hip replacements

Eleven girls and six boys, aged between 10 and 19, had new hips on the UK's NHS in the past four years, figures from NHS Digital have revealed. Seven of the girls had their operations in the past year, reports the Daily Mail.

And two obese girls, aged between 10 and 19, needed knee replacements over that period due to weight-related joint damage.

And the number of both obese adults and children needing joint replacements has soared by 70 per cent since 2014, according to The Mirror. The surgeries cost the NHS £230million ($430million NZD) in 2017 alone.

Professor John Wass, an adviser on obesity at the Royal College of Physicians, told the Mirror the figures are "horrifying."

He called for primary schools to have regular weigh-ins and for a ban on junk food advertisements on television before 9am.

But the British Obesity Society's Jane DeVille-Amond said it was parents who needed to act.

"Many friends and family unintentionally sabotage a child's attempt to change," she told the Mirror.

More than a third of children are classified as overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school aged 11, which increases their risk of developing conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart and liver disease in later life.

NHS Digital revealed last month that 20.1 per cent of 10 to 11-year-olds and 9.5 per cent of four to five-year-olds are classed as obese.

Earlier this year, the Department of Health announced new measures including getting pupils to move more and reduce their exposure to sugary and fatty foods in a bid to halve childhood obesity by 2030.

The government also called on the food industry to recognise the harm that adverts promoting unhealthy food can cause.

"The cost of obesity – both on individual lives and our NHS – is too great to ignore," Jeremy Hunt, then Health Secretary said at the time.

"Today we are taking steps to ensure that by 2030, children from all backgrounds have the help they need for a healthier, more active start in life."

MailOnline has contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.