Parents tend not to realize when a weight problem is creeping up on their children. When almost a third of U.S. children are at least overweight, and about 17 percent are obese, it’s harder to notice that there’s anything unusual about their own families. Plus, children change as they grow older.
The new study suggests when parents do recall a doctor noting the problem, it’s been going on for a while.
About 30 percent of the parents of overweight 12- to 15-year-olds said a doctor had alerted them, compared with just 12 percent of the parents of overweight preschoolers. Even among the parents of very obese children, only 58 percent recalled a doctor discussing it, says the report published Monday by the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
“Many pediatricians don’t worry until children are very overweight, or until they’re much older,’’ says Perrin, whose team has created stoplight-colored growth charts to help doctors explain when a problem’s brewing. “If we can notice a concerning trend early, we’re more likely to be able to do something about it.’’
That means taking a family approach, says Dr. Nazrat Mirza, medical director of an obesity clinic at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington. Important changes — such as switching to low-fat milk and water instead of sugary sodas and juice, or cutting back on fast food — should be viewed as making the whole family healthier, not depriving everyone because Johnny needs to lose weight.
“You do not want to single out one individual in the family. That’s enough to cause a lot of friction,’’ says Mirza, who wasn’t involved with the new study.
Doctors have long tracked children’s height and weight during yearly checkups, but more recent guidelines urge them to calculate a youngster’s body mass index, or BMI, to screen for developing obesity. Unlike with adults, one measurement alone doesn’t necessarily mean children are overweight — they might be about to shoot up an inch.
