Most of the mothers 71.5 percent were very satisfied with their toddlers' body size, and mothers of overweight toddlers were the most satisfied, the researchers found.
Among the moms who were dissatisfied, the team found more than 20 percent of mothers of healthy weight toddlers and many of the mothers of the overweight toddlers wanted their kids to be bigger, Hager said.
"That suggests we may have a lot of parents who are trying to fatten up their babies," said Dr. Eliana Perrin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, who wrote a commentary on the research in the same journal.
Doctors say the obesity epidemic may be eroding a general impression among the public of what healthy looks like in a toddler, and that suggests pediatricians need to be much more candid with parents about their child's weight.
The concern among scientists is that children's eating habits are shaped when they are very young, said Dr. Stephen Cook, a member of the Executive Committee of the Section on Obesity for the American Academy of Pediatrics and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
"Kids who gain weight as toddlers tend to hold onto weight longer and tend to be overweight and obese in adolescence and adulthood," said Cook, who conducted a similar study in older children.
