New Study Finds Parents Can’t Tell If Their Child Is Overweight

Parents want to see the best in their children, but that can sometimes cloud their judgement. A new study has found that 1 in 3 kids are obese in America and their parents can't even tell.

In fact this study, which has been conducted several times, finds that parents are now worse at determining if their child is obese than ever before. 

A group of researchers submitted findings from studies conducted between 1988-1994 and 2005-2010 and found that both sets of parents were mistaken when asked if their child was overweight, underweight, just about the right weight or if they "didn't know."

In the earlier group 78 percent of boys who were overweight and 61 percent of girls who were overweight had parents who saw them as "just the right weight." But in the later group it jumped to 83 percent and 78 percent respectively.

So why is it so hard for a parent to tell if their child is overweight?

The authors of the study seem to think that it has to do with "a generational shift in social norms related to body weight.” One researcher, Dr. Jian Zhang of Georgia Southern University, goes on to say that

“We rarely compare our weight status against an absolute scale or a number recommended by doctors, instead we compare to what our friends, neighbors and co-workers look like. If we look like most of others, we of course perceive that we are just fine."

Sadly with childhood obesity rates higher than ever before, this means that most parents are comparing their overweight kids to other overweight kids and therefore think everything is okay. And with parents unable to correctly identify their child's weight as a problem, there's no way for them to offer a solution.