London, March 14 (IANS): Remain alert before telling your neighbour that their kids have grown overweight.

They may genuinely feel offended and ask you to shut up as 50 percent of parents can not recognise the problem of overweight in their children, a research shows.

“One out of two parents of a child with overweight in Central and Northern Europe perceived their child's weight as normal. In Southern Europe, the same figure was 75 percent,” the results showed.

Four out of 10 parents of children with overweight or obesity are even worried that their child will get too thin.

"Many parents simply do not see the increase in growth, and are dependent on objective information from, for instance, child welfare centres and school health care to act,” explained Susann Regber from University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The research was part of a European study that comprised a total of 16,220 children in the ages 2-9.

“How parents perceive their child's weight status is of major significance to being able to promote a healthy weight development,” Regber added.

According to the researchers, the parents' insight into obesity in children indeed grows in pace with the child's age and higher BMI in the child.