A DESPERATE mother whose four-year-old daughter is nearly five stone overweight is urging people: "Please don't judge her on first appearances".

Amanda Jones' daughter Kayleigh Lacroix suffers from a rare genetic disorder which causes her to binge eat and never feel full.

The condition means Kayleigh already weighs seven stone - the normal weight for a four-year-old is just two-and-a-half-stone - and has to wear age 11 clothes.

Now Amanda, who lives in Mayfield Road, Rainbow Hill, Worcester, is terrified of the reactions Kayleigh will get from parents and other children when she starts St Barnabas CE Primary School in September.

"I have already got into arguments in the street when people just stare at her," Amanda, 23, said. "She stands out because she is obviously a lot bigger than other children her age and the condition also affects her eyesight so she has to wear thick glasses.

"But underneath she is a normal little girl with a heart of gold."

Amanda described how she first noticed something was wrong when Kayleigh was 15 months old and her weight doubled to two stone in six weeks.

"When she was two she was still in a pushchair as she was so big but they kept breaking as they couldn't cope with her weight," the healthcare assistant said.

"She had 26 tests done and eight blood tests before she was finally diagnosed as having a defective Mc4r gene.

"When we knew it was genetic, me and my dad were tested and we have it too." Amanda described how she tried putting a lock on the fridge and placing food out of Kayleigh's reach in a bid to stop her eating - but it has all failed.

"She will even sit and gorge on cheese - which she hates - just because she is so hungry," she said. "And she has now started waking in the night demanding sandwiches."

Kayleigh sees a paediatrician at Worcestershire Royal Hospital every three months as well as specialists at Addenbrookes Hos-pital in Cambridge who are working on experiments in a bid to find a cure.

"People just look at us together and because I'm big they think it's my fault but we just want people to understand," Amanda said.