Rochester, N.Y. – Mothers of overweight toddlers don’t think
their children are overweight and actually think their children
are the perfect weight. A new study published in the Archives of
Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine showed mothers of overweight
toddlers judged their toddler’s weight inaccurately 90 percent
of the time. Mothers with overweight children overwhelmingly
thought their children were the perfect weight. The study
surveyed 281mother-toddler pairs. A majority of the mothers were
classified as low-income and were 70 percent African American.
Dr. Rae-Ellen Kavey is a pediatric cardiologist at Golisano
Children’s Hospital. She says the study is not entirely
surprising. “Babies and young children have fat on their bodies
so we expect to see fat in a young child,” Dr. Kavey says. “It's
not surprising for a parent to have difficulty recognizing when
that fat is normal versus when it’s abnormal.” Also, Dr. Kavey
says there is common misconception of how much food a toddler
should have. “Everyone wan