Most parents do not know how to detect overweight in their child(ren)
A study from the Department of Psychology at the University of Nebraska makes things pretty clear: most parents don’t know how to detect overweight in their child(ren).
Foreword
Parents’ perception of their child’s build is extremely important. It is this perception that can help prevent overweight or even obesity. And yet, a large proportion of parents are unable to correctly determine whether their child(ren) is overweight.
The study
This study actually centralizes information from 69 different sources (studies carried out between 1990 and 2012), which represented a total of 15,791 overweight or obese children. These children were between 0 and 18 years old.
Across all these studies, the researchers indicated that approximately 50.7% of parents underestimated the build of these children. A percentage to be taken with hindsight, as it is a reconstructed figure, but the researchers are 95% sure that 31.1% to 70.2%of parents underestimate the size of their child(ren). It is therefore obvious that many parents are not able to properly prevent overweight and obesity in their children. The older the child, the easier it is for parents to detect overweight problems. But it is between 2 and 5 years that the analysis of corpulence, for parents, is the most difficult. And this finding is unfortunate because children who are already overweight before the age of 5 are 5x more likely than other children to be overweight at the age of 12.
It is interesting to note that children’s corpulence, when it is “normal”, is also sometimes underestimated. Less than in obese children because out of 64,895 children of normal build, only 14.3% of parents think that their child is underweight (researchers are 95% sure that this figure is between 11.7% and 17.4% ) .
What Alyssa Lundahl ( from the University of Nebraska, she is the person who carried out this study ) also notes is that parents’ perception has unfortunately not changed despite the rise of obesity in the world. Parents do not seem to be affected by the rise in obesity in their close circle either.
How to assess your child’s build
And you? Do you know how to measure your child’s build?
The corpulence curves in the health record (or online)
There is a tool in your child’s health record: it’s curves (it’s pink for girls and it’s blue for boys). These curves make it possible to follow the evolution of your child’s corpulence, they are based on the BMI (Body Mass Index). Even if the classic interpretation of BMI (according to the World Health Organization), only applies to adults, there is also an interpretation (non-linear this time) for children. You can also calculate your child’s BMI online (on our website).
» Click on this link to calculate your child’s BMI (ages 0-18).
If in doubt about your personal judgement, you can turn to a general practitioner or pediatrician.
What to do if you detect overweight in your child?
- Contact a doctor, who will explain the procedure to you
- Take stock of the child’s eating habits (with a doctor)
- Take stock of the child’s lifestyle (according to his age, according to his sports activities, etc.)
After discussion with your doctor, and after he has been able to gather all the necessary information, he will be able to establish a diagnosis and explain to you how to act. After he has been able to identify the various negative behaviors (to correct them), and the positive behaviors (to develop them even more), a work of action will be put in place.
Stephen Paul is the lead author and founder of My Health Sponsor. Holder of a diploma in health and well-being coaching with more than 200 articles in the field of health, he makes it a point of honor to offer advice based on reliable information, based on scientific research, and verified by health professionals.