Aliya Saleem, of Jharkhand, India, was born at a relatively large 9lbs, then began to rapidly gain weight from the age of four months - and is now as heavy as an average six-year-old girl.

Her parents are worried about her health, after another of their children died aged just one-and-a-half after gaining weight in a similar fashion.

The girl's mother Shabana Parveen, 25, said: ‘A few months after her birth, she starting gaining weight. We had to buy her a new pair of clothes every two weeks because the old ones become too tight for her.’

The enormous weight has put Aliya's life in danger, but the family have lacked the money to obtain good enough medical care for her.

Her father Mohammad Saleem, 28, said: ‘We have tried our best, but we could only afford to take her to the local hospital.

'The doctors in the village could not tell us clearly what she is suffering from. We took Aliya to a doctor in Ranchi. After the check up the doctor suggested that we go to another city, but we couldn't afford that so we didn't take her.’

However, Aliya's parents recently managed to get a consultation at Fortis Hospital on the outskirts of Delhi in a bid to try and get to the bottom of their daughter's massive weight gain.

Dr Krishan Chugh, head of paediatrics at Fortis, said: ‘This is the heaviest baby at ten months of age that I have seen. This could be case of morbid obesity or even a hormonal imbalance.

‘But we need to conduct some tests on her before making a proper diagnosis. The treatment depends on the diagnosis that we make. 

'There are some disorders that can be treated. As far as the reversal of this weight gain is concerned, that would depend on when we find a cause for it.’

The average weight of a ten-month-old child in the UK is 1st 4lbs - less than half Aliya's weight.

Aliya's giant frame poses problems for Mrs Parveen, who struggles to hold her in her lap for very long. She said: ‘She has become very heavy. My husband comes home very late from work.

(dailymail.co.uk)