Parents Might Not Realize Their Kids Are Overweight

Note from Connie: We all know that children’s obesity is a nightmarish reality that’s only getting worse by the day. What’s perhaps just as horrifying — if not more — is that the majority of parents just don’t realize that their kids are part of this epidemic. Karen James brings us this update.

When it comes to taking stock of U.S. childhood obesity, parents take a pretty pragmatic view. But when it comes to their own children, the gap between parental perception and reality is glaring, according to the results of a telephone poll conducted by Consumer Reports that we read about on HealthNewsDigest.com.

After interviewing about 600 parents of children ages five to 17, Consumer Reports found that 90 percent of parents interviewed said childhood obesity was a problem in the U.S.

But — here’s the catch — when serious overweight problems hit home (meaning a child was at least 20 percent heavier than government-set body mass index (BMI) calculations estimated he or she should be), only half the parents with heavy children recognized that their children were overweight.

And parents won’t necessarily get a reality check from the family pediatrician either, according to the poll. Only 51 percent of parents with seriously overweight children reported being advised by a doctor that their children should lose weight.

That said, Consumer Reports adds a caveat that while BMI can be used to screen children for potential weight problems, other methods of determining whether a child has excess fat (such as skin-fold-thickness measurements) are likely needed.

Read more about interesting findings such as how more overweight children ate take-out, fast food and frozen meals several times a week compared to their ideal-weight counterparts here (subscription required), according to the poll.

Karen James for the SUGAR SHOCK! Blog.