Childhood Obesity Prevention Should Begin Early In Life, Possibly Before Birth

Clearly. We have been saying this for years.

Efforts to prevent childhood obesity should begin far earlier than currently thought - perhaps even before birth - especially for minority children, according to a new study that tracked 1,826 women from pregnancy through their children's first five years of life.

Most obesity prevention programs - including the national initiative recently launched by First Lady Michelle Obama - target kids age 8 and older. Scientists at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Department of Population Medicine, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, now say that factors that place children at higher risk for obesity begin at infancy, and in some cases, during pregnancy. Their research also suggests that risk factors such as poor feeding practices, insufficient sleep and televisions in bedrooms are more prevalent among minority children than white children.

"This early life period - prenatal, infancy, to age 5 - is a key period for childhood obesity prevention, especially for minority children," says Elsie Taveras, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as the director of the One Step Ahead Program at Children's Hospital Boston. "Almost every single risk factor in that period before age 2, including in the prenatal period, was disproportionately higher among minority children."

Excellent reasons to:

dissuade the fat from reproducing,
register fat people who do have kids so they can be followed-up,
make fat people pay more for having kids since they require follow-up and
avoid the gross stupidity of the weight loss initiatives of the First Fatty, Michellesie "The Cow" Obama.