A child's well-being can be at stake considering the fact that parents are in denial about their child's health.

A survey conducted by the combined effort of the researchers from the University of California, San Diego, and Brown University in Rhode Island involved parents of children who were first-time patients at a pediatric obesity clinic. Researchers largely wanted to judge the families' willingness to help their children lose weight.

Surprisingly the survey showed that around 31% of the parents considered the health of their overweight children to be "excellent" and almost 28% of the parents did not believe at all that their children's heavy weight affected their health.

All these results were found out despite the fact that the survey involved all those parents who had already enrolled their children in a program to treat obesity at a specialty clinic in Providence, Rhode Island. These parents were of the 202 children who were enrolled in the program.

The findings of this survey that was conducted from November 2008 to August 2009 were published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The study's lead author, Dr. Kyung E. Rhee, is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. He said, "I think many parents may think that being slightly chubby is OK, and that their child will grow out of it".

This type of survey in a way provides an insight into the amount of willingness that parents have when it comes to making behavioral changes in their children's eating patterns and exercise habits. Largely 40% of the parents had not made any lasting diet changes for their children and 60% of the parents don't encourage any kind of physical activity.