We’ve been hearing a lot about the efforts to battle childhood obesity in the United States, but new evidence suggests the focus on getting school kids to be active, eat lower calorie school lunches and drink fewer calories in soda and juice might be addressing the problem too late in these children’s lives. These new findings suggest that events early in life can put children on the path to obesity before they even know how to talk. By the time kids are in kindergarten, getting off that path may be nearly impossible.
According to new findings, babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are at a higher risk of becoming obese, despite their usually smaller birth weights. Babies who sleep less than 12 hours a day are also at higher risk for obesity later in life. In toddlers that don’t sleep enough and watch two hours or more of TV a day that risk is even greater. High infant body mass index and rapid infant weight gain are also risk predictors. Even extra weight put on during pregnancy by mothers may increase a child’s risk of obesity.
“The idea that a big baby is a healthy baby, and a crying baby is probably a hungry baby who should be fed, are things we really need to rethink,” explains Dr. Leann L Birch, director of Penn State’s Center for Childhood Obesity Research. Obesity programs have refrained from dealing with weight gain in children under 5 in the past, but Birch’s study is aimed specifically at developing obesity prevention strategies for children between 0 and 5 years of age.
So how can we keep our kids healthy?
First, keep ourselves healthy. Doctors recommend that mothers not gain more weight than necessary during pregnancy and, if possible, try to reach a healthy weight before becoming pregnant. Once the baby is born, breast feeding is one of the best ways to keep infants healthy and reduce their risk of childhood obesity. After weening, making smart nutritional choices right away can have a big impact. Avoid empty calories and high amounts of sugar and fat. Last, but not least, get plenty of exercise and plenty of sleep.
