LONDON (Reuters):
SCIENTISTS HAVE drawn up a check-list of early warning signs of child obesity, among them too much television and not enough sleep.
More than eight hours' TV a week or less than 10-1/2 hours' sleep a night for a three-year-old increase the risk of piling on the pounds, they say.
"Eight factors in early life are associated with an increased risk of obesity in childhood," said Dr John Reilly, an expert on child obesity at the University of Glasgow.
WARNING SIGNS
"There are certain factors, very early on, which can set you on a particular path in life to becoming obese," he added in an interview.
The others are: high birth weight; early size; rapid weight gain; quick growth in years one and two; early body fat and having obese parents.
A propensity to gain weight begins early, even in the womb.
"If you are big early on and you grow rapidly, it seems to predict risk of obesity later on," said Reilly.
"There is something about size and growth, even in the womb, that seems to have an effect."
By the tender age of three, children are developing habits that will mean they are more likely to be overweight or obese.
LIFESTYLE
"We shouldn't be complacent about the lifestyles of our children," Reilly said. "What our study is showing is that although there are early growth risk factors, there are also a number of risk factors that relate to lifestyle, of three-year-olds and probably earlier, that seem to make a difference."
He and his colleagues, whose findings were reported online by the British Medical Journal, studied more than 9,000 children aged seven whose growth had been followed since birth.
Health experts estimate that about 10 per cent of children, or at least 155 million youngsters world-wide, are overweight or obese.
Overweight and obese children have a higher risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes and, later in life, of developing heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer.
Reilly stressed that efforts to prevent obesity should begin very early in life.
"We are missing an opportunity to prevent obesity if we do not modify lifestyle and environment early in life. We need to be looking more at improving long-term outcomes by changing lifestyle," he added.
U.S. child obesity dragging down overall gains
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Child obesity has more than tripled in three decades and the increased health risk associated with being fat has wiped out progress in other areas, according to a report issued in March.
The annual report on U.S. child welfare from Duke University and the Foundation for Child Development also found that the poverty rate for families with children hit 17.2 per cent in 2003, the worst it has been since 1998.
Those findings overshadowed the overall gain for U.S. children, who were found to be having far fewer babies, smoking less and using fewer illegal drugs. The report's overall measurement, called the Child Well-Being Index, has improved 4.5 percent since 1995.
But an estimated 15 per cent of U.S. children are overweight or obese, and studies show they are developing type-2 diabetes, high blood cholesterol and even high blood pressure at rates that greatly raise their heart disease risk.
Rising obesity has "completely obscured all progress made in the health category, dragging it 17 percent below 1975 levels," the foundation said in a statement.
The index is based on various reports on health, income, educational status, safety issues, community involvement and emotional and spiritual well-being.
