Childhood obesity : a study on parents' knowledge and perceptions

The purpose of this study was to gather information on parents??? knowledge of childhood\ud obesity and nutrition and their perceptions of their child???s weight status. A survey was\ud used to collect data from 80 parents with toddlers and preschoolers between the ages of 6\ud months to 5 years. The results of the study indicated that most parents, including parents\ud of overweight and obese children, perceived their child to be at a normal weight;\ud however, parents of obese children were significantly more concerned about their child???s\ud future weight status than parents of non-obese children. Although there was an overall\ud low level of parental concern about their child???s future weight status, the majority of\ud parents thought that childhood obesity was a national problem. Overall parents had good\ud knowledge about the causes and consequences of childhood obesity, but there was a lack\ud of parental knowledge on age-appropriate serving sizes for milk and vegetables. A\ud significant number of parents were also unaware of the connection between\ud breastfeeding and childhood obesity. Parents used a variety of childhood obesity and\ud nutrition knowledge sources, but were less familiar with government websites that\ud provide comprehensive and reliable information on this topic