A pilot study: does obesity begin in the first year of life?

Aim: To determine if growth patterns in healthy infants can identify associations with obesity at age 5 years.

Method: Body mass index growth patterns from birth to 1 year were described for cohorts of children who were classified at 5 years as normal weight (n = 61), overweight (n = 47), obese (n = 41), and morbidly obese (n = 72). A longitudinal analysis of body mass index means based on the age postbirth was conducted and graphed.

Results: Distinctions in growth patterns were evident before 1 year postbirth. Children who were normal weight at 5 years demonstrated a growth pattern in the first year that differed from children who were overweight, obese, or morbidly obese at 5 years.

Conclusions: Obesity growth patterns were seen in infancy and are clinically important because identification of infants who do not fit a normal weight pattern can occur and thus guide individualized interventions in the first year postbirth while precursors of later health are still forming.