IGNORANT parents are blamed today for the region’s obesity epidemic, which is now expected to cost the NHS a staggering £678m a year by 2015.

A “toolkit” for local health chiefs highlights how parents are failing to help their children live healthy lives – because they feed them fast food, fail to spot they are overweight and do not understand the damage caused.

For the first time, it calculates the shocking cost of diseases caused by obesity for every town and city, predicting the bill across Merseyside and north Cheshire will hit £678m in just seven years’ time.

In Liverpool alone, the cost to the NHS is expected to reach £181.5m, with Wirral (£109.3m), Halton and St Helens (£105.8m) and Sefton (£91.1m) not far behind.

Most controversially, local authorities and primary care trusts (PCTs) are urged to intervene directly by targeting “at risk” children as young as two years old.

Among the study’s key findings are:

Only 11.5% of parents with overweight or obese children recognise the fact.

Parents underestimate how much unhealthy food they buy – and over- estimate the amount of activity their children do.

Many families use snacks as rewards, as “fillers” during times of boredom and to “appease conflict”.

Only 38% of adults know that obesity can lead to heart disease, and only 6% know its links to cancer.

Parents of older children are more worried about not feeding them enough than about obesity.

Parents who fail to cook lack the knowledge, confidence and skills.