Contrary to popular believe,
young children usually do not shed excess
pounds as they get older. Even 2-year-olds
who are overweight are more likely than their
normal-weight counterparts to be overweight
by age 12, results of a long-term study show.
"These findings underscore the need to maintain
a healthy weight beginning in early childhood,"
Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development
said in a statement. The NICHD funded the study,
which appears in the journal Pediatrics this
month.
The study authors advise that being overweight
at any time during early childhood should
prompt interventions by pediatricians in counseling
parents about healthy eating and activity
patterns for their child, since obesity in
the teen years is highly predictive of obesity
in adulthood.
Dr. Philip R. Nader, at the NICHD in Rockville,
Maryland, and colleagues tracked the height
and weight of roughly 1400 healthy subjects
starting in infancy through about 12 years
of age. At the end of the study, 1042 children
still remained in the sample, of whom 555
had been weighed and measured at all seven
points in time.
Results showed that children who were ever
overweight in the preschool years were five
times more likely to be overweight at age
12 than the rest of the cohort. They defined
overweight as having a body mass index (BMI)
greater than the 85th percentile for age.
During elementary school years, children
who were overweight at 7, 9, and 11 years
of age had a 374-fold increased risk of being
heavy at age 12 than those who remained below
the 85th percentile.
Moreover, 60 percent of children who were
ever overweight during preschool years and
80 percent of those ever overweight during
elementary school age were overweight at the
end of the study.
"These results suggest that any time a child
reaches the 85th percentile for BMI may be
an appropriate time for intervention," the
researchers advise.
Even being in the top 50th percentile by
age 3 puts children at higher risk, with 40
percent being overweight at age 12, they note.
As would be expected, none of the children
who were below the 50th percentile for BMI
during elementary school years were overweight
at age 12.
Dr. Nader's team urges pediatricians to counsel
parents of at-risk children about addressing
eating and activity patterns "rather than
delaying in hopes that overweight and the
patterns that support it will resolve themselves
in due course."
SOURCE: Pediatrics September 2006.
