Parents’ Denial Fuels Childhood Obesity Epidemic

eports on the phenomenon of “oblivobesity,” in which parents “increasingly seem to be turning a blind eye as their children put on pounds.” The Times cites a recent study in Childhood Obesity, which found that “more than three-quarters of parents of pre-school-age obese sons and nearly 70 percent of parents of obese daughters described their children as ‘about the right weight.’” Some potential explanations for parents’ blindness to their children’s obesity are that youngsters are generally becoming heavier, meaning that they may not particularly stand out as overweight, or that parents may not know how to handle the problem, so they deny it exists. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/health/parents-denial-fuels-childhood-obesity-epidemic.html?ref=health