On Dec 28th the online edition of The American Journal of Public Health published findings by researcher Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, and others, that suggest there are certain defining factors that promote obesity in children by the time they reach three years.
Their study took into consideration racial and ethnic differences when comparing obesity patterns in young children.
Overweight and obesity can be increasingly noticed in children even at three years. It has also been found that Hispanic children and children with obese mothers are especially prone to obesity. The researchers said that Latino children with overweight mothers were most likely to be fat themselves.
After studying 2271 three year old children of low income mothers in twenty U.S. cities, it was found that 35% of the children were overweight or obese. This was most marked among Latino children [44%]. African-American children too were apt to be overweight when compared to white children.
Statistics were adjusted to allow for other factors that might affect obesity in children, such as the parents' ages and educational levels.
Although there was no definite explanation for these findings the researchers stated that certain factors could be responsible for facilitating obesity in three year olds. Some of these may be an extra bottle at bed time, an overweight mother or a higher than average birth weight.
It was also found that not shopping regularly at a grocery store could increase the chances of obesity in tiny tots. This is because lower-income families would choose food that was going to last over fresh food for which they would have to visit the grocery store regularly. Such food is usually high in calories.
Breastfeeding for at least six months could considerably lessen the chances of obesity in the offspring of an obese mother. This however did not seem to affect children whose mothers were not obese. Of the children studied, 42% of white children with obese mothers were themselves obese in comparison to black children [36%] and Hispanic children [56%].
For children whose mothers were of normal-weight the obesity- figures read as 26%, 25%, and 40% respectively. This showed that evidently the weight of a mother plays an important role in determining the possibility of obesity in a three year old due to household nutrition levels, exercise or genetics.
Kimbro, a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recommends that parents ensure their children are active and that they eat healthy diets even in the early years.
She pointed out that overweight, young children run the risk of suffering from asthma, orthopedic problems and even high blood pressure.
Besides which, overweight youngsters are "subject to more psychosocial stress and stigma."
Kendall Sprott, acting chairman of pediatrics at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, agrees that many three year-old children he has treated have been found to be obese and agrees that obesity seems to be more common among the Spanish-speaking population.
Cynthia Sass, a registered dietician in Tampa, Fla., and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, remarked that diseases associated with adults such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and cardiovascular ailments are gradually becoming common in young children.
However, she cautions that more research needs to be carried out to confirm the new findings. While being able to identify children at risk early on is important, it is desirable to have a better understanding on how to create “prevention oriented programs.”
