Dr. Reginald Washington, a Denver pediatrician and co-chairman of an American Academy of Pediatrics obesity task force told the AP, labeling a child obese "might run the risk of making them angry, making the family angry, but it addresses a serious issue head-on.
He added, "If that same person came into your office and had cancer, or was anemic, or had an ear infection, would we be having the same conversation? There are a thousand reasons why this obesity epidemic is so out of control, and one of them is no one wants to talk about it."
The federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention do not use the word, "obese" due to the stigma attached to it. They also prefer to say "at risk of being overweight" rather than overweight.
Those who wanted to modify the language voiced that the current terminology encourages denial of a problem affecting a large number of American young people.
A proposal brought up by the American Medical Association and the CDC, stated that fat children would get the same labels as adults - obese or overweight.
