In 69 studies of more than 15,000 children,
researchers found many parents with an overweight child thought
their son or daughter was at a healthy weight or below. Others with
an obese kid thought the child was normal or just a bit heavy.
"We know that parents play a very crucial role in preventing
childhood obesity, and interventions are most successful if they
involve parents," said Alyssa Lundahl. She led the study at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
But, Lundahl said, if parents don't recognize their child is
overweight or aren't concerned, they aren't going to take steps to
address it.
"Previous research has found that when parents' perceptions are
corrected, they do start to take action and encourage their children
to become more active and maybe turn off the TV and go outside and
play," she told Reuters Health.
The studies included children and teenagers ages two and up. In each
case, researchers had parents assess their child's size using
pictures, rating scales or other techniques. Then they measured the
children to determine whether they hit weight-to-height cutoffs for
being overweight or obese.
Just over half of parents — 51 percent — thought their overweight
child was normal or underweight or thought their obese child was
normal, underweight or just overweight.
It's possible parents in the studies wanted to avoid labeling or
stigmatizing their child, Lundahl and her colleagues write. Or,
their understanding of what an overweight child looks like could be
distorted from media reports on childhood obesity showing images of
severely obese kids.
The authors did the same analysis looking at 52 studies of about
65,000 normal-weight children. They found 14 percent of those
children's parents also underestimated their kid's weight, thinking
the child was underweight.
Lundahl, whose research is published in Pediatrics, said parents can
make sure their child's pediatrician is checking whether the child
is in the normal weight-to-height range.
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Conversations about weight can be difficult for both
pediatricians and parents, noted Dr. Raquel Hernandez, from All
Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida and Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine.
"Parents do have to be more open-minded to the conversation of how
they feel about their child's weight," Hernandez, who wasn't
involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.
"For the motivated parent who is open-minded there may be an issue,
there is a real potential to make an impact in young kids," she
said. That's important because children who are overweight are much
more likely to grow up to be obese than their normal-weight peers if
they don't change their habits.
Hernandez recommended parents of overweight children cut down on
sugary drinks like juice and be careful with portion sizes.
No matter what size children are, parents should encourage them to
eat healthy and be physically active, Lundahl said.
Lynn Brann, a pediatric nutrition researcher at Syracuse University
in New York, agreed.
"Parents of children with all body weights can be helped in terms of
improving their nutrition and their health," Brann, who also wasn't
involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.
She said she avoids telling parents to make weight, itself, a big
deal with their kids.
"It's not about weight; it's about what your body can do and how you
fuel it," she said. ___
Source: http://bit.ly/1e0MzTO
Pediatrics, online Feb. 3, 2014.
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