By Melissa Schorr

NEW YORK, Feb 04 (Reuters Health) - Babies who put on weight speedily in their first 4 months of life may be at greater risk of obesity later on, a new report suggests.

"Children's rate of weight gain in the first 4 months was related with the risk of being overweight 7 years later," lead author Dr. Nicolas Stettler, an assistant professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told Reuters Health. "Those 4 months may be a critical period for the establishment of obesity in children."

The researchers were hoping to gain further insights into childhood obesity, which has tripled among children aged 6 to 11 during the past three decades. Obesity among children may lead to obesity in adulthood and related diseases.

Previous research has shown certain time periods during childhood are related to the development of obesity later in life, including gestation, ages 3 to 6 and adolescence. Research on lab animals has suggested that the first 4 months of life may be a similarly crucial time period.

In this study, the researchers studied the weight gain of more than 19,000 infants evaluated at 12 medical centers during their first year of life and again at 7 years of age. The results are published in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The investigators found that for every additional pound gained during the first 4 months of life, the child was around 30% more likely to be overweight at age 7. This was regardless of the child's weight at birth, or whether they were of average weight at one year.

For example, "the child who gained 7 pounds during those first 4 months was 30% more likely to be overweight than a child who gained 6 pounds," Stettler said. The average weight gain during the first 4 months of life is around 6 pounds, he said, although infants' weight gain ranged from 4 to 10 pounds.

The researchers note that this is the time of greatest proportional weight gain in a person's life, with the infant doubling in body weight, and so may be the point when the body establishes its mechanisms for hunger and satiation.

Parents may want to avoid having their infants gain too much weight at this time, Stettler suggested.

"I wouldn't recommend parents putting their infants on a diet," he warned. "Follow the recommendations presently made by the American Academy of Pediatrics for breast-feeding and not introducing other foods that early," Stettler advised.

"We know that children who are fed formula rather than breast milk gain weight more rapidly and are more at risk for being overweight later in life," he noted. "If parents rely on these recommendations, I think they are doing the right thing."

SOURCE: Pediatrics 2002;109:194-199.

http://www.reutershealth.com/archiv...204elin004.html

The foods most often introduced at this early age are fruit juices, bananas and white rice cereal. On the subject of formulas .. the soy-based formulas are usually sweetened with sucrose or corn-syrup (fructose) to bring the carb-content up to match breastmilk (which contains lactose).

Don't suppose the sugar could have anything to do with the rapid weight gain?

Doreen

doreen, according to the research summarized in Adiposity 101, that's exactly what the culprit is! Best chance of guaranteeing your child not inherit your weight problem? Breast feed for two years, only adding well-minced (pre chewed by mum would be ideal, if you can overcome the taboo) meat during the last six months of that period.

Formula is closer to breast milk in macronutrients than it once was, but still too carby.

My family has increasing weight problems in birth order...and my mother breast fed each of us a shorter and shorter period of time. When I first read this info, a big "AHA" lightbulb went on for me.

good post!