The vast majority of parents of overweight children do not acknowledge the problem, according to the Health Survey for England 2015. Nine in ten mothers and eight in ten fathers of overweight children said they thought their child was about the right weight, as did almost half of mothers (48%) and 43% of fathers of children who were classed as obese. “It is possible that consistently high levels of childhood obesity in recent years have normalised an unhealthy weight,” said Gillian Prior, head
of health at the National Centre for Social Research. The survey found that, overall, 14% of children were overweight in 2015, and a further 14% were obese; in 2014, 31% were either obese or overweight.
