Parents with obese children often don't see it, study finds

Researchers have identified a new culprit in the epidemic of childhood obesity: parents who can't even tell that their pudgy kids are overweight.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that American parents are much less likely to make an accurate assessment of their children's weight compared with parents from an earlier generation. If moms and dads don't see the problem, they aren't likely to be part of the solution, the researchers say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define childhood obesity not according to body mass index (as it does for adults) but according to how a child's BMI compares with that of other kids of the same age and gender. Children who have a BMI at or above the 95th percentile are considered obese, and those with a BMI between the 85th and 95th percentiles are considered overweight. In 2012, fully 18 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 11 were considered obese, up from 7 percent in 1980, the study authors wrote.

Past studies have documented that parents aren't always attuned to the fact that their kids are carrying around more pounds than they ought to. Indeed, researchers have found that some low-income mothers reject the CDC's growth charts as "ethnically biased and therefore invalid," the study authors wrote. (Kids are in denial, too, CDC researchers say.)

The new study is believed to be the first aimed at determining whether parental misperception of children's weight is getting worse. - Los Angeles Times