WOW!! Peds should be posting this on the front doors of their offices!!


 <http://www.reuters.com>



 First Week Critical in Childhood Obesity - U.S. Study
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&st
oryID=821617 7&section=news>

Mon April 18, 2005 04:27 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - What you feed a newborn baby during
the first week of life could be critical in deciding whether
that baby grows up to be obese, U.S. researchers said on
Monday.

They found that formula-fed babies who gained weight rapidly
during their first week of life were significantly more
likely to be overweight decades later.

"It suggests that there may be a critical period in that
first week during which the body's physiology may be
programed to develop chronic disease throughout life," said
Dr. Nicolas Stettler, a pediatric nutrition specialist at
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"Our findings also point toward new potential targets for
preventing obesity," he added. "If these results are
confirmed by other studies, they may lead to interventions
in newborns to help prevent long-term development of
obesity."

Stettler's team studied 653 white adults aged 20 to 32.

Writing in the American Heart Association journal

Circulation, they said each additional 100 grams (3.5
ounces) of weight gained during the first eight days of life
increased a baby's risk of becoming an overweight adult by
about 10 percent.

The study also helps reinforce recommendations that mothers
breast-feed their babies.

"For a variety of health reasons, the American Association
of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breast-feeding during a
baby's first six months of life," Stettler said. Breast-fed
babies are less likely to be overweight.

In a special issue on obesity, the Heart Association said
childhood obesity is such a critical public health problem
that it could reverse the gains made over the last 50 years
in reducing heart disease and death.

An estimated 16 percent of U.S. children are overweight and
carry a significant risk of developing heart disease and
diabetes while young adults.

"Only 64 percent of mothers initiate breast feeding, and
only 29 percent of babies are still being breast fed when
they are six months of age. Rates of initiation and duration
are even lower among African-American women," said Dr.
Stephen Daniels of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical
Center.

The Heart Association published a statement calling for a
multi-pronged approach to preventing childhood obesity
involving families, the health care system, private insurers
, government agencies, schools and the food and
entertainment industries.

"If you think about all the environmental factors that have
contributed to excess weight gain, then prevention has to
take an across-the-board approach that doesn't just happen
in the physician's office," Daniels said.

All children should have weight, height and body mass index
-- used to calculate obesity -- tracked each year, the Heart
Association recommended.


Ellen Penchuk, IBCLC, RLC

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