Identifying the “Tipping Point”Age for Overweight Pediatric Patients
Doctors typically wait until medical complications arise before they begin treatment for childhood obesity. But the study's findings indicate that the "tipping point" in determining obesity occurs very early in life -- as early as when infants are first learning how much to eat and what to eat.
Researchers analyzed 111 children classified as “overweight,” or those whose body mass index exceeded 85 percent of the general population. Among those children who had gained weight in infancy at a high rate, more than half were overweight by age 2 and 90 percent were overweight before age 5.
By identifying when children become overweight, the study aims to help health care providers target early intervention. Its results indicate that the critical period for preventing childhood obesity is within the first two years of life, and that doctors and parents should be aware of a child's proper weight and rate of weight gain as early as 3 months of age.
The study was published in the February 2010 issue of the journal Clinical Pediatrics.
