Parents in England may be warned if their children are found to be overweight, under government proposals.
Children in England are currently measured at the ages of five and 10, but parents are informed of the results only if they request them.
The new plan may see parents getting results automatically.
Between a quarter and a third of children are thought to be overweight, and doctors fear there will be an epidemic of poor health related to obesity in coming decades.
An obese person dies on average nine years earlier than somebody of normal weight, while a very obese person's life is cut short by an average of 13 years.
Under the proposals being considered, information obtained under the measurement programme could be given automatically to parents, and involvement may become compulsory unless people choose to opt out of the measurement scheme.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: "It's a good thing in the sense that if the government expects parents to [have] prime responsibility for the raising of their children, it is absolutely essential that they should know what the healthy range of weight is.
"If you start earlier, around the age of two and three from nursery, then you've got the time to start to implant the healthy eating, healthy exercise education, which will then carry them through school."
But Dr Terry Dovey, a psychologist at the University of Staffordshire who specialises in childhood obesity, said "stigmatising" children and parents for having an overweight child was not the way forward.
He said: "The most success you can possibly have is being vigilant in both what you're eating and how much of it you are eating. If you're wanting to target specific groups then you have to have the key stages in the process to help the child and parents."
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