Fat Mothers Put Kids On Path To Obesity
According to a new study in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, three factors accelerate a child’s path to obesity:
- A fat mother…
- Too much TV viewing…
- Rapid weight gain in early childhood…
The researchers studied 571 New Zealand children of European heritage from birth until 7 years old.
Kids with a high percentage of body fat by age 3-1/2 were much more likely to be obese by 7 years old than kids with a low percentage of body fat.
Kids with rapid growth spurts were also more likely to become obese. (I don’t quite understand this one because I thought a growth spurt would make a child thinner.)
Being a girl also increased the chance of obesity.
The researchers found that children with overweight or obese mothers had about 4% more body fat than kids with normal weight mothers.
But the scientists weren’t sure if genes, a shared lifestyle, or exposure to specific things during pregnancy was the cause.
Kids who watched over 3 hours of TV a day had 5% more body fat than children who watched less than an hour of TV every day.
Inactivity also increased the risk of obesity. Every extra hour of inactivity added almost 1% of body fat to these kids.
The researchers concluded that children start on the path to obesity very early in life. We need to take steps to stop it just as early.
One easy method is to turn off the TV and get the kids playing in a physical way. I think TV and video games are the main reason this generation is suffering from so much childhood obesity.
These kids need to get up and move!
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