Parents Unreliable In Reporting Children's Height, Weight

Fat parents have fat kids. These are the ones hurt most by people who are too ignorant to parent.

Parents often misperceive their children's height and weight, according to research presented at the American College of Sports Medicine's 57th Annual Meeting in Baltimore. One in five obese children-21 percent-would not be identified as obese when using parent-reported data.

"Parents tend to overestimate boys' height and underestimate girls' height," said Daniel O'Connor, Ph.D., coauthor of the study. He and Joseph Gugenheim, M.D., compared the measured height and weight of 1,430 patients at an orthopedic clinic with the values their parents reported...

Almost half of the parents underestimated their child's weight, and errors in reporting weight tended to be larger for girls and increase with age. Weight errors were also more significant in children who were overweight or obese. Ethnicity also played a role.

"The largest discrepancies were among African-American parents," Gugenheim said. "Hispanics also tended to mis-report their children's weight in this study." Children in the study ranged from 2 years to 17 years in age.

Dissuade the fat from having kids to prevent nutritional child abuse.