If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  Rapid Weight Gain in Infants Linked to Childhood Obesity BOSTON -- March 30, 2009 -- Rapid weight gain during the first 6 months of life may place a child at risk for obesity by age 3, according to a study published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics. The study suggests that changes in weight status in infancy, rather than weight status at birth, may determine risk of obesity later in childhood "There is increasing evidence that rapid changes in weight during infancy increase children's risk of later obesity," says coauthor Elsie Taveras, MD, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention and One Step Ahead Clinic, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. "The mounting evidence suggests that infancy may be a critical period during which to prevent childhood obesity and its related consequences." Most prior studies examining the relationship between infant weight gain and later childhood obesity focus primarily on body weight. However, measures of length, in addition to weight, together reflect body fatness better than weight alone. Dr. Taveras and colleagues examined how weight and body length, or weight-for-length, in infancy can influence later obesity by using data from Project Viva, an ongoing study of more than 2,000 pregnant women and their children. They isolated a subgroup of 559 mother/child pairs and studied patterns of weight gain in infancy and their subsequent 3-year effect. In addition to looking at static weight and length measures, the team also looked at weight gain as a dynamic process, measuring not only how much but how quickly an infant gained weight. The connection between rapid infant weight gain and later obesity was striking, even after adjusting for factors such as premature babies or those underweight at birth. There were certain limitations to the study. Researchers weren't able to examine social and behavioural interactions around feeding between parents and infants, and while families in the study represented various ethnic backgrounds, they were fairly homogeneous socioeconomically, so there may be some question regarding how widely the results can be generalised. Still, when seen in the context of other research, the relationship between infant and childhood weight is compelling. "There is still a lot more we need to understand about the mechanisms of how this all fits together," said Dr. Taveras. "But this data clearly shows how the earliest interventions might actually have very long-term benefits." SOURCE: Harvard Medical School
|
