Aug 10 2006
Even Babies are Becoming Obese
A study published Wednesday in the Journal of Obesity, found:
The study found that over the 22-year period, the prevalence of overweight children increased from 6.3 percent to 10 percent, while the rate of risk for being overweight increased from 11.1 percent to 14.4 percent.
In infants under 6 months — a group Gillman said has seldom been included in weight studies — the prevalence of being overweight increased from 3.4 percent to 5.9 percent during the same period, a jump of more than 73 percent.
As if we have to ask…why is this happening?
And parents may be pushing too much food on their kids. “We oversnack our children nowadays,” Calabrese says. “People use food as a calming mechanism. They use food as a comfort measure. Those are two very bad reasons to give your child food.”
Babies usually quit when full, “but every parent knows that babies can be urged to eat a little more even after they seem full,” says pediatrician William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Parents have to use prudent feeding practices, and use infant foods, not fast foods. Some infants are being fed french fries.”
The trend is continuing, is it a surprise that babies are now involved? What are the possible implications?
Dr. Nicolas Stettler, assistant professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has done groundbreaking work in this field.
“What we’ve shown,” he said, “is that if you look at weight gain early in life – during the first year, the first four months, even the first week – and then look at weight status in childhood and adulthood, you find a strong association.”
And more to the point, big babies equal big adults:
Gillman said early weight gain can have dire consequences for long-term health. Studies suggest that gaining excess weight during the first months of life is associated with becoming overweight and developing high blood pressure years later. Other data suggests that infants who gain excess weight are more likely to suffer from wheezing, which can lead to asthma, Gillman noted.
“We need to think about preventing obesity at the very early stages of life,” he said. “Women need to maintain exclusive breast-feeding for at least four to six months, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics,” he said.
What’s the message, being a parent starts before the child is born:
Since babies are usually fed only breast milk or formula until age 5 or 6 months, it seems unlikely that the new figures reflect poor food choices by parents.
It’s time for all of us to take a long, hard look at the state of our society and reverse these trends. We owe it to our kids.
