It is extremely important to nip unhealthy eating habits in the bud!

A team of researchers in the US have come to the conclusion that pediatricians are neglecting their duties by not warning parents that their children are overweight or obese. It's either this or maybe the parents are choosing to ignore the advice and warnings of their doctors?

The study which involved questionnaires being given to almost 5,000 parents of overweight and obese children over a nine year period noted that less than 25 percent of the parents said that they remembered a doctor ever bringing up a weight problem with them. This means that more than 75 percent of parents have never been warned about what is probably the single most serious long term health problem in America today.

Dr. Eliana Perrin from the University of North Carolina who led the study said that it was difficult for doctors to bring up the subject with parents as they were often extremely sensitive about any perceived criticism of their parenting skills or their children.

The research which was published by the medical journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine also noted that the parents of very obese children often got away without weight problems being discussed. In fact 42 percent of the parents of these very obese children said that they had never been told that their children's weight was a health problem.

Other findings of the study showed that when children became older [between the ages of twelve to fifteen] the doctors were more likely to mention the problem. Unfortunately other research which we have published at Ukmedix News shows that when children get to their teenage years with a weight problem they are likely to stay that way for the rest of their lives. It is extremely important to nip unhealthy eating habits in the bud! 

Obesity is now considered to be the second most dangerous preventable cause of death in the western world only topped by smoking. The fact that more than ? of pediatricians do not mention child weight problems could be fueling the problem and shows that cultural attitudes to parenting and weight problems need to drastically change to remedy the issue.