because being overweight and obese increases the risk of suffering from a variety of illnesses later in life. Obese children are also more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a disease previously seen only in adults. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in obese children in Poland is nearly four percent. In Hungary it is two percent and 1.6 percent in Germany, according to recent research.

"A third of the mothers and 57 percent of dads actually saw their obese child as normal," said Alison Jeffery, a member of the research team at the medical school. "Quite a few parents are not recognising it as a problem. They are not recognising the health risks either." But Jeffery said it isn't a case of denial. "We are all used to seeing people who are bigger than they used to be 20 years ago and we just see people who are overweight as normal."

Jeffery questioned 300 seven-year old children and their parents about their perceptions of body size. One third of mothers and half of fathers who were either overweight or obese rated themselves as "about right". When the child was a normal weight, according to an internationally recognised measurement of obesity in children, most of their parents, regardless of their own size, knew there was no problem.

When the child was overweight but not obese, only a quarter of the parents knew it. But even when the youngsters were obese, 40 percent of parents were not concerned about their child's weight. Reuters