In Wallsend, 300 miles north of London, health officials are threatening to take a 198-pound, 8-year-old boy into protective custody unless his mother improves his diet.

A hearing, set for today, will start the process. The officials allege child abuse. They claim the mother, Nicola McKeown, 35, neglects her son, Connor McCreaddie, by letting him eat too much.

But Nicola complains that her son steals and hides food, which prevents her from helping him. She also admits that he pesters her for food so continuously that she does give into it.

She says it’s hard to cope with his constant nagging and that no one can understand unless they’ve dealt with it.

According to Nicola, the boy’s doctors offer help, but don’t actually give it. They just tell her to watch what Connor eats.

Health officials counter that the family has missed appointments with nutritionists, nurses, and social workers.

Connor lives with his mother and sister. He has trouble washing and dressing himself. He’s missed a lot of school because he can’t make the 5-minute walk without getting physically ill. He gets picked on by bullies all the time.

At his heaviest, Connor weighed about 218 pounds. With help from health workers, he’s lost about 20 pounds in 2 months.

Connor eats every 20 minutes. He likes deep-fried food and mashed potatoes, but hates fruits and vegetables. He refuses to eat healthier foods.

No one disputes that his family loves him. One pediatrician claims they are loving him to death. He’s at risk of developing diabetes and heart disease by his 20s.

Nicola fears that taking Connor from his family will hurt him more. She’s vowed to fight.

Neither side will say if Connor suffers from a medical condition that causes his obesity.

There’s more.

Recently, Nicola consented to have television cameras follow Connor’s everyday life for about 4 weeks. I believe the documentary aired last night in the UK.

Apparently, the ITV News crew filmed everything about Connor — his eating, his playing, even his bathing with the help of his mother and grandmother.

The documentary revealed that Connor was already in age 5 clothes at 18 months old and by actual age 5, he weighed over 125 pounds.

I’ve read comments by people from the UK and the US who are not at all sympathetic. Many blame the mother.

I think there’s more going on here. Any child who’s the size of a 5-year-old at 18 months clearly has a medical problem.

What caused him to gain so much weight by such a young age? Has the medical problem been addressed?

Has it even been diagnosed correctly? Doctors make a lot of mistakes, but they rarely admit them. Is this really just a case of overeating?

Does the boy have an insatiable appetite from a physical cause beyond his weight? They need to find out for sure.

Connor has a sister, but there was no mention of her being obese.

I remember going to high school with a girl who died of anorexia nervosa. Her parents tried everything to help her. But nothing worked.

They were exhausted physically and emotionally.

After she died, they found a lot of food squirreled away in the attic. Food they once believed she had eaten.

It’s amazing how clever a child — or anyone — can be when they have an obsession, an insatiable need that the rest of us can’t understand.

When Nicola says it’s hard for anyone to understand what she copes with 24 hours a day, I believe her. Connor’s grandmother says the boy sneaks food from the fridge when they aren’t looking.

I don’t know why the mother has missed appointments with the health care workers. Is she neglectful or don’t they help her?

Maybe they’re just preaching. Maybe she’s afraid they’ll take her boy at one of the meetings.

But what I can’t understand is why she’d let TV cameras film this poor kid. Does she think that letting an audience see her bathe her son will stop the ridicule?

I think Connor will have to cope with bullies exploiting those images for the rest of his school days.

Assuming there isn’t another medical problem here, the mother needs to get tough with this kid. He may be literally eating himself to death. Saying it’s too hard to deal with is just not good enough.

She also has the option of changing the type and amount of food that’s in the fridge. If he doesn’t like it, good. Maybe he won’t eat as much.

She should shop day-to-day, if she has to, and limit what the kid can have. He can’t sneak food that isn’t there.

It may not eliminate the problem, but it’s a start.

The health officials who want to take this boy from his home are even worse.

He’s 8 YEARS OLD, for heaven’s sake. Why don’t they just put him in a stockade and finish the psychological abuse?

I can only imagine how frightened he must feel. At the very least, it must seem like a punishment.

What message does this send to other overweight kids? Eat your vegetables or we’ll come get you?

Will the health officials start snatching the fat kids in midnight raids? Exactly how overweight do you have to be?

Here’s an idea. Instead of having TV cameras follow Connor’s life for a month, why doesn’t a nanny/nurse go to live with the family?

Then that person can experience firsthand what the mother is coping with. Let the nurse be in charge of food for the boy.

The family won’t have to worry about missing appointments. The health officials will have one of their own supervising Connor without yanking him from his home.

And if the nurse can’t do it, then maybe someone needs to figure out what the boy’s medical problem is. I’m sure at this point he needs psychological help, too.

Most importantly, Connor needs to stop eating so much so often. They need to get his weight down now, whatever it takes.

Then start to change the rest of his lifestyle as he becomes able to tolerate more exercise.

The government’s spending exorbitant sums on this child anyway. Why don’t they make it count?

And if nothing else works… instead of yanking the kid, why don’t they yank the fridge?

What do you think? Should the authorities remove Connor from his home?