Children Destined to Be Obese Can Be Identified by Age 3.5

Wrong. They can be identified before birth.

A prospective analysis of body mass index (BMI) in 1957 children from ages 5 months to 8 years reveals that an "atypically elevated BMI trajectory" that leads to obesity is identifiable by age 3.5 years.

The study, by Laura E. Pryor, MSc, from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris, France, and colleagues and reported in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, tracked a subset of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development.

Three groups of weight gain trajectories clearly emerged: low to stable (54.5%), moderate (41%), and high-rising (4.5%). Plotting age against BMI produces a chart in which the first and second curves run parallel to each other on the x-axis, while the high-rising trajectory veers sharply upward at 3.5 years.

Fat parents have fat kids.

The time to intervene is when a fat person gets pregnant.