If a baby is born with heavier weight than he is at an increased risk of being overweight as a child, a recent study has concluded. The obesity risk can be identified in kids at an early stage. This way doctors can work with parents to prevent the unhealthy weight gain of babies as they grow up. This will also enable parents and doctors to prevent the health issues associated with weight gain.
"We are hopeful that these data may help physicians and families make healthy lifestyle decisions for their young children to avoid later weight problems," said researcher Mark DeBoer of the University of Virginia Children's Hospital in the US.
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The study was published in the journal Pediatric Obesity which laid emphasis on 10,186 children across the US, both who were born normally and those born prematurely. The babies who were born with high birth weight were more likely to be obese by kindergarten than their counterparts. A similar result was obtained in children born prematurely, starting in first grade.
Children born with a large birth weight (above 4.5 kgs at term) were 69 per cent more likely than average weight children to be obese by kindergarten and continuing at least through second grade, the researchers determined.
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By second grade, the last grade examined, 23.1 per cent of children born with high birth weight were obese. In comparison, children born at the expected weight had an obesity rate of only 14.2 per cent by second grade.
Out of premature infants born with high weight for gestational age, 27.8 percent were obese by the second grade. While those born with a normal weight had an obesity rate of only 14.2 percent which is nearly half of the obese counterpart. Those who are born below the expected weight had an obesity rate of 28%.
(With IANS Inputs)
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