According to a study carried out at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, USA, pediatricians were not noting that obese children were, in fact obese, at a rate of over 60%. Two thirds of the children were slipping through the net, even though they were obese.

A study was carried out by Dr. Sarah O’Brien. She presented her findings to the hospital’s general academic pediatrics dept. As a result, nurses have been trained and are now better at calculating a child’s BMI (body mass index).

She said that the parents and doctor expect the child to grow out of it, so they do nothing about it. Unfortunately, Dr. O’Brien said that an obese 6 year old has a very big chance of becoming a fat adult - a far greater chance than a child who is not obese.

You can read about this study in the American Academy of Pediatrics journal.

O’Brien reviewed the medical records of 2,000 kids. These kids had been to the hospital from December 2001 to February 2002. Only 7% of pediatricians asked for lab tests to screen for weigh related problems. In only 15% of cases were children’s sedentaryTV watching hours noted.

Julie Spangler, a nurse at the hospital, said \"I knew just from watching kids come through that obesity was a problem. Unless somebody was really off the charts, I don’t know that anybody was calculating BMIs.\"

O’Brien believes doctors and parents should discuss a child’s weight without hesitation.

Childhood obesity is growing at an alarming rate in the USA and many other countries.