In a California study of 200 Latina mothers of preschool-aged children, researchers found that these moms frequently have inaccurate perceptions of whether or not their children had a weight problem. "A significant number of women believed that their children were normal weight when they were, in fact, overweight," said lead study author Dr. Elena Fuentes-Afflick, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, and a pediatrician at San Francisco General Hospital.

That may not strike us as surprising—after all, how many doting moms would want to label little Johnny or Jane, or Pablo or Maria, as fat? But the findings of the study, which was presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting this past weekend, are deeply troubling. Nearly 45% of the children in the study were overweight at 3 years of age. That's bad enough. But perhaps even scarier was the fact that the chances of a child being overweight were highest in families where moms perceived that their children were just fine.“We found that 92% of the mothers of overweight children rated the child’s health status as good or excellent,” said Dr. Fuentes-Afflick.

The study analyzed data from patient interviews conducted for the Latino Health Project. But forget any easy stereotypes about certain cultures preferring chubby babies. "It's not just Latino parents," Fuentes-Afflick noted. "As a pediatrician, when you start to talk to parents about their child's weight or body mass, you have to ask: How much and what are children eating? How much TV are they watching? It's especially challenging to talk about these issues with respect to young children because parents are largely responsible for their children's dietary habits."

What it Means: "If there is a mismatch between what the pediatrician and the mother think is a healthy weight, how do we, as pediatricians, clearly and effectively communicate information about the child's weight to the mother and other family members?" Fuentes-Afflick asked. "As a society, we have a number of negative labels that we use to describe overweight people, and parents don't want their child to fall into that category. It often takes several visits to the pediatrician, communicating the same message before parents understand that overweight is an important issue for children."

As parents we are certainly not doing our children any favors by pretending that weight doesn't matter. And no, we definitely should never insist that anyone, let alone children, conform to some unattainable body image. But parents also need to acknowledge a problem that afflicts ever-growing numbers of children. Ask your pediatrician, "Is my child overweight?" If the answer is yes, find out what you and your family can do about it.

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