A boy of two has become the youngest person in the world to have weight loss surgery.
The family of the obese toddler begged for help after his weight soared to five stone and he began suffering sleep apnoea which caused him to stop breathing while asleep.
Doctors who carried out a ­laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy to shrink his stomach to the size of a banana said two bids to slim him down through diet had failed.
The “gastric sleeve” LSG op is only performed when a gastric band or a gastric bypass would be unsafe.
Obesity expert Professor Paul Zimmett, of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, branded the case “shocking” and “very unusual”.
He added: “It is going into unknown territory. We have no idea what effect this may have on the child’s growth.
“Unless he has proper follow up he may suffer vitamin deficiencies.”
The boy weighed 3st 3lb when he was first seen by a hormone specialist.
But four months after his family were ordered to put him on a strict diet his weight had increased by 1st 2lb.
Medics could not verify whether his parents had enforced the diet.
By the time he was referred to an obesity clinic he was officially “morbidly obese” and had begun to suffer sleep apnoea and problems with his legs.
Comparison: Boy had a body mass index of 41
A second attempt at dieting also failed and when he reached 5st 2lb doctors decided to operate on him at Prince Sultan Military Medical City, in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.
The boy was of a normal weight until he reached six months old. But as he became heavier, his parents sought the advice of doctors.
He had no family history of morbid obesity or genetic abnormalities and a CT scan of his brain showed no other possible causes of obesity.
Surgeons decided to perform the LSG, which involved removing the outer layer of his stomach to make it a quarter of its previous size.
In the UK, only obese girls aged at least 13 and boys aged 15 would be considered for the surgery.
The boy lost about 15% of his body weight and was a “normal” 3st 7lb two years after the 2010 surgery.
The surgeons wrote in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports: “To our knowledge LSG has never been tried in very young age children.
“We present probably the first case of the successful management of a two-year-old morbidly obese boy.”

Doctor's view: GP Dr Roger Henderson on toddler's obesity surgery

Weight-loss surgery on children is considered only in extreme cases and after a healthy diet and exercise has been encouraged.
In this very rare case it appears all attempts at diet failed and the boy’s life was at immediate risk.
He may need further surgery in the future and will need to have strict meals and remain under specialist care in the long term.