Study finds growing percentage of babies overweight

Nanci Hellmich, "Study finds growing percentage of babies overweight",
USA Today, August 9, 2006,
Link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...t-babies_x.htm

More babies are heavy now than 20 years ago, a reality that bodes ill
for their health, according to one of the first studies to look at
overweight infants. The finding is controversial because some experts
say there's no clear definition of obesity in the first two years of
life.

The study in the journal Obesity says the percentage of babies under 6
months old who were overweight or on the brink of becoming so increased
from 10.4% in 1980 to 17% in 2001, according to the research on
children in Massachusetts. The percentage of overweight toddlers and
preschoolers also increased substantially.

ON DEADLINE: What, if anything, should parents do?

"The prevalence of overweight is rising in our very youngest children,
even our infants," says lead researcher Matthew Gillman of Harvard
Medical School.

Other experts challenge these results. "We don't have a definition of
overweight for children under 2, so these conclusions are
questionable," says Jamie Calabrese, a member of the American Academy
of Pediatrics' task force on obesity.

"Babies have periods of time when they gain weight and periods where
they have accelerated growth, so they may appear chubby at times and at
other times appear thinner due to rapid growth in height," she says.

Gillman says other experts have used the same guidelines he used. "The
important point is the trends are upward," he says. Although people
consider chubby babies "cute and healthy," those extra pounds could
carry health risks later in life, Gillman says.

Pre-pregnancy weight and excess weight gain during pregnancy increase
both birth weight and the risk for overweight in early childhood, says
pediatrician William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.

Breast-feeding seems to protect against excess weight gain. "The longer
the better," he says. "But even breast-feeding for a week or two seems
to have some benefit."

No one is suggesting putting babies on a diet, Dietz says. "We're
talking about preventing excess weight gain, not losing weight."

Parents have to use "prudent feeding practices, and use infant foods,
not fast foods," he says. "We know that some infants are being fed
french fries."

Says Calabrese: "We oversnack our children nowadays. 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."