Latina mothers of preschool-aged children frequently have inaccurate perceptions of their children’s body mass index, believing they are healthy when they are overweight, according to a new UCSF study.

“A significant number of women believed that their children were normal weight when they were, in fact, overweight,” said UCSF Associate Professor of Pediatrics Elena Fuentes-Afflick, MD. “However, if the mother described her child as overweight, she was usually correct but it is concerning that many mothers did not perceive their overweight children as being overweight.”

The study findings were presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting from April 29 through May 2 in San Francisco. Fuentes-Afflick said the study has implications for the effort to stem the tide of pediatric obesity, which has reached epidemic proportions in the United States.

“It’s not just Latino parents. As a pediatrician, when you start to talk to parents about their child’s weight or body mass, you have to ask, ‘How much and what are children eating?’ ‘How much TV are they watching?’ It’s especially challenging to talk about these issues with respect to young children because parents are largely responsible for their children’s dietary habits.

“If there is a mismatch between what the pediatrician and the mother think is a healthy weight, how do we, as pediatricians, clearly and effectively communicate information about the child’s weight to the mother and other family members?” Fuentes-Afflick said.

The study analyzed data from patient interviews conducted for the Latino Health Project, a prospective study of Latina women who were recruited during pregnancy and interviewed annually. The study included 194 women and children who were interviewed in 2000-2003, three years after recruitment.

The number of overweight children was higher among women who perceived their children had good or excellent health status, among women who had no concerns about their children’s health status and children who were reported to eat well. Overweight children were defined at those with weights in the 85th percentile on developmental growth charts, adjusted for their age and height.

“As a society, we have a number of negative labels that we use to describe overweight people, and parents don’t want their child to fall into that category. It often takes several visits to the pediatrician, communicating the same message before parents understand that overweight is an important issue for children,” she said.

The number of overweight children was significantly less likely among women who perceived their children had fair or poor health status and whose weight was perceived as too low.

UCSF is a leading university that consistently defines health care worldwide by conducting biomedical research, educating graduate students in the life sciences, and providing complex patient care.

The Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting is the largest international meeting that focuses on research in child health. The PAS consists of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Ambulatory Pediatric Association, American Pediatric Society, and Society for Pediatric Research.