Some parents see child's size wrongly

VICTORIA, Australia, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Australian researchers say about 40 percent of parents say they think their underweight or overweight children are average in weight.

The study based on data from a survey of 2,100 children and parents in Victoria, finds 43 percent of parents of underweight children and 49 percent of parents of overweight children incorrectly identified their children as average in weight.

Parents are more likely to report their sons as underweight and their girls as overweight. A small number of parents -- less than 3 percent -- said they believe either their underweight children are overweight or their overweight children, underweight.

"Parents are unlikely to take the necessary preventative actions if the perception of their child's weight -- whether underweight or overweight -- is incorrect,'' study leader Pene Schmidt of the University of Melbourne says in a statement. "This study also suggests a strong social bias among both parents and children toward thinness. In particular, we need to make sure that the focus on reducing the number of overweight children does not have the adverse impact of increasing the number of underweight children."

One of the difficulties, Schmidt suggests, is different methods of assessing weight result in different rates -- body mass index results in more children being classified as overweight than waist circumference.