Big babies risk becoming obese toddlers

by Alan Cooper
(Editor, ObesityCures.com)

New research has found that babies who gain weight rapidly in the first six months of life risk growing into obese toddlers.

The findings of the study, published in the journal "Pediatrics" this week, are at odds with the belief of parents down the ages that bigger babies are healthier babies.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston studied 559 children.
"We found that children who grew rapidly during that time period had a high risk of obesity at three years," said lead author Dr. Elsie Taveras, assistant professor in the department of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard.
"For a long time there's been this kind of cultural affirmation that baby fat is healthy. We've always heard this message that baby fat will disappear and that it's not really associated with long-term obesity.
"I think the most important implication of our study is that that might not be true, and that we need to be a little more cautious in our message to mothers about their infant's growth," she said.