There is a serious debate on whether it is ok for health professionals and doctors as well as parents to label and call children fat or obese. There are 2 schools of thinking on the matter with some people saying that to damage a child's self esteem and confidence by labelling them as obese serves no beneficial purpose and will only damage their will and ability to diet as well as being cruel. On the other side of the discussion you have those who say that you should call a spade a spade and make the children face reality by telling them about their problem and so that they don't live under the fallacy that it is ok to be obese.

In the UK and in the United States the debate is continuing and an official from the American Academy of Pediatrics recently noted that when you call a child obese you also suffer the possibility that you will make the child and the family of the child very angry as they feel insulted but he considered it in the best interest of children involved to tackle the obesity problem head on. He argued that doctors don't make allowances for people if they have cancer heart disease or any other serious health problem and so why should they pretend that all was ok when obesity was the problem. The American Academy of Pediatrics went as far as to say that one of the boosters for the obesity epidemic getting out of control is that no one is ready to say it is present and no one is wants to talk about the problem.

Another health organisation in the United States namely the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to use a more indirect attitude to the problem of obesity and thus they do not use the word 'obese' because of its negative associations and instead they refer to children as overweight and 'at risk of overweight.' Many say that using these vague terms to describe people with excess weight can only add to the problem.

The American Medical Association is however studying proposals that would mean that fat children would be categorised like adults namely as overweight or obese and this would bring America face to face with facts. It is ironic to note that the country that has the biggest obesity problem worldwide also appears to have the most lenient and denial based systems for labelling obesity in children and this highlights just how sensitive the Aericans are about their obesity problem.