Obesity in children is a rapidly growing problem and may be underrecognized by pediatricians. We reviewed 473 consecutive well child visits to assess frequency of correctly identifying overweight children. Of children with a body mass index greater than the 95th percentile for gender and age, only 27 (29%) were diagnosed as overweight by the physician. Our results suggest that the frequency of diagnosing children as overweight at well child visits is critically low.
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