Study finds more overweight babies

More babies are heavy now than 20 years ago, a reality that bodes ill for their health, according to one of the first studies to look at overweight infants. The finding is controversial because some experts say there’s no clear definition of obesity in the first two years of life.

The study in the journal Obesity said the percentage of babies under 6 months old who were overweight or on the brink of becoming so increased from 10.4 percent in 1980 to 17 percent in 2001, according to the research on children in Massachusetts. The percentage of overweight toddlers and preschoolers also increased substantially.

“The prevalence of overweight is rising in our very youngest children, even our infants,” said lead researcher Matthew Gillman of Harvard Medical School.

Other experts challenge these results. “We don’t have a definition of overweight for children under 2, so these conclusions are questionable,” said Jamie Calabrese, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ task force on obesity.

“Babies have periods of time when they gain weight and periods where they have accelerated growth, so they may appear chubby at times and at other times appear thinner due to rapid growth in height,” she said .

Gillman said other experts have used the same guidelines he used. “The important point is the trends are upward,” he said. Although people consider chubby babies “cute and healthy,” those extra pounds could carry health risks later in life, Gillman said.

Pre-pregnancy weight and excess weight gain during pregnancy increase both birth weight and the risk for overweight in early childhood, said pediatrician William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Breast-feeding seems to protect against excess weight gain. “The longer the better,” he said. “But even breast-feeding for a week or two seems to have some benefit.”

No one is suggesting putting babies on a diet, Dietz said. “We’re talking about preventing excess weight gain, not losing weight.”

Parents have to use “prudent feeding practices, and use infant foods, not fast foods,” he said. “We know that some infants are being fed french fries.”

Said Calabrese: “We oversnack our children nowadays. People use food as a calming mechanism. They use food as a comfort measure. Those are two very bad reasons to give your child food.”