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Can You Tell If Your Child Is Overweight? Most Parents Can't, [Nanny State] Study Finds
forbes.com ^ | Alice G. Walton

Posted on 03/30/2015 10:06:01 AM PDT by BenLurkin

The researchers from University College London studied nearly 3,000 families in five regions in the UK who were taking part in the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). They measured the children’s BMI, which in Britain is broken down into three categories: normal weight, overweight (above the 85th percentile), or very overweight (i.e., equivalent to obese in the US, above the 95th percentile). The team also asked the kids’ parents what BMI group they thought they fit into.

It turned out that parents were extraordinarily poor at determining whether their children were overweight or obese. Of the 369 kids who were very overweight, only four parents thought they were. When the researchers analyzed the numbers further, they saw that for a given child with a BMI in the 98th percentile, a whopping 80% of parents would say that the child was normal weight. It would take a child being in the 99.7th percentile for the parents to even say the child was overweight, let alone very overweight.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: childhoodobesity

1 posted on 03/30/2015 10:06:01 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

If you tip your child over and they roll then they are overweight.


2 posted on 03/30/2015 10:14:27 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: BenLurkin

Can You Tell If Your Government Is Overweight? Most Americans Can’t, Steely Tom Study Shows.


3 posted on 03/30/2015 10:15:00 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: BenLurkin; GeronL

If you go broke at one of those “pay what your kid weighs” restaurant.


4 posted on 03/30/2015 10:15:51 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Shickl-Gruber's Big Lie gave us Hussein's Un-Affordable Care act (HUAC).)
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To: Steely Tom

The fat cat government needs to reduce.


5 posted on 03/30/2015 10:16:25 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Shickl-Gruber's Big Lie gave us Hussein's Un-Affordable Care act (HUAC).)
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To: BenLurkin
My son is a junior in high school, 6’ 3” 190 lbs, very low body fat. As a freshman we was short and kind of chubby. A government program didn't change his body, puberty, weights, and agility workouts did.
6 posted on 03/30/2015 10:21:03 AM PDT by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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To: BenLurkin

They’re 4 and you can’t pick them up?

Chances are they’re over weight.

This isn’t rocket science.


7 posted on 03/30/2015 10:26:14 AM PDT by joethedrummer
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To: BenLurkin

Either millions of parents are wrong, or the government reasearcher is. Lets have a vote.


8 posted on 03/30/2015 10:32:19 AM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: fungoking

My son was an obese baby. Always around 50th percentile in height and off the charts in weight. Even I was worried. Now at 6, he is the star on his basketball and soccer teams and seems to have 6-pack abs coming through. Not sure when the transition started or ended. We put him in soccer at 4 and he was maybe a little above average. At 5 in the spring there was maybe 2 on his team that were better. Did summer basketball and he started average and by the end of the season was dominant. Did soccer again in the fall and he was head and shoulders better than everyone else and he was a kindergartener on a k-1 team. He is now finishing another basketball season and had to be moved up to a 2nd and 3rd grade team (he is still in kindergarten). Growth can be illogical and funny. Now he eats what he wants and when he wants and just burns it right off.


9 posted on 03/30/2015 10:32:50 AM PDT by wolfman23601
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To: BenLurkin

My 3rd son was a chubby kid until 10th grade when he suddenly grew 4 inches. When he started playing Pop Warner football at 8 yrs old he was always an offensive lineman. He played Guard and Center. In high school after his growth spurt he played TE and MLB. He is now a Sgt in the Marine Corps. He is 6’2” 195 lbs. Some kids start out naturally chubby and out grow it.


10 posted on 03/30/2015 11:06:30 AM PDT by sean327 (God created all men equal, then some become Marines!)
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To: wolfman23601

It’s interesting to look at elementary school class photos from the 1950’s. Overweight kids were rare.


11 posted on 03/30/2015 2:05:12 PM PDT by aimhigh (1 John 3:23)
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To: Steely Tom

Excellent.


12 posted on 03/30/2015 3:35:47 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

Apparently schools and government agencies cannot tell either.


13 posted on 03/30/2015 3:38:08 PM PDT by GeronL
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