Never call a child fat

What’s the best way to be told that your child is overweight or obese?

Not at all, of course. But if that bad news must be delivered, a national survey published in the journal Pediatrics this week finds that parents will feel blamed and respond badly to words like “fat,” “obese” and “extremely obese,” and would feel more motivated if a physician said their child has an “unhealthy weight,” a “weight problem,” or a “high BMI” (Body Mass Index).

Surprising? Hardly. But it does fly in the face of some pretty authoritative advice given just last year in Britain, where Public Health Minister Anne Milton recommended that National Health Service doctors call their overweight patients “fat” as a means of motivating them to lose weight. (She actually preferred “fat” to “obese,” opining that calling patients “fat” would encourage more “personal responsibility.”)