While obesity prevention has long been the focus of figure-conscious adults, a new Harvard Medical School study suggests that parents should also monitor the weight of their infant children. The study, released Monday and published in the April issue of Pediatrics, found that rapid weight gain during the first six months of life may put children at risk for obesity by the age of three.
"At first it may seem implausible that weight gain over just a few months early in infancy could have long-term health consequences, but it makes sense because so much of human development takes place during that period - and even before birth," says Matthew Gillman, M.D., S.M., the study’s senior author, and director of the Harvard Medical School Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention’s Obesity Prevention Program.
Researchers documented the weights of 559 infants at birth, at six months and at three years of age. They then studied the correlation between the children’s initial weight gains during the first six months of life and the children’s weights at age three. The study showed that the children heaviest at birth and those who gained the most weight by six months together were 40 percent more likely to be obese by their third year.
"There is increasing evidence that rapid changes in weight during infancy increase children's risk of later obesity," says the study’s lead author, Elsie Taveras, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor in the Harvard Medical School Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention and co-director of the One Step Ahead clinic, a pediatric overweight prevention program at Children's Hospital Boston. "The mounting evidence suggests that infancy may be a critical period during which to prevent childhood obesity and its related consequences.”
According to a study released in the April 2007 issue of Acta Paediactrica, roughly 20 percent of four year-olds were considered overweight or obese in 2002, compared to just 10 percent in 1982. With such a startling rise in childhood obesity, proper nutrition must be emphasized at an increasingly younger age.
“[The Harvard Medical School study] data clearly shows how the earliest interventions might actually have very long-term benefits," Taveras says.
To learn more about infant and toddler health, join Healia’s Infant and Toddler Health Community Support Group. For more information about obesity, visit the Healia Obesity/Overweight Health Guide.
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