Loading...
Studies of parental perceptions of their children's body size have not focused on toddlers. Researchers examined maternal perceptions of and satisfaction with their children's weight in 281 mother-toddler pairs (born at term; age range, 12–32 months) who were recruited from a WIC clinic and an urban pediatric clinic serving mostly low-income black families. Mothers and toddlers were weighed and measured, and maternal perceptions of and satisfaction with their children's body size were assessed using a validated toddler silhouette scale (7 silhouette images in increments of 16 percentile points across all weight-for-length percentiles).
Nine percent of toddlers were underweight (<15th weight-for-length percentile) and 29% were overweight (≥85…