Overweight Kids -- Overweight Teens?

Overweight Tots May Stay Fat

By Jason Knapfel
eDiets Senior Editor

Often when we see a chunky child, we think "Oh, that's just a little leftover baby fat. They'll outgrow it." But our weight problems can start in toddlerhood, and may be permanent, a new study shows.

The study looked at more than 1,000 American boys and girls. Sixty percent of the children who were overweight at any time in the preschool period, and 80 percent of the children who were overweight at any time during the elementary period were overweight at age 12 years old, writes Philip Nader, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues in the study.

The moral of the story is that it may be better to address weight issues early on. But the findings don't mean that all overweight toddlers will become overweight teens, or that thin kids will stay that way. In fact, the study shows that 40 percent of the kids ever overweight in preschool, and 20 percent of those ever overweight in elementary school, were not overweight at age 12.

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