Chubby babies and tubby toddlers are at risk for becoming overweight children and obese adults, so parents, doctors, and other caregivers need to help prevent infants and young children from getting fat, the National Academy of Sciences concluded Thursday.
Mothers, fathers, day-care workers, preschool employees and others should limit how much time children spend parked in front of the television, watching videos and using other electronic gadgets, make sure they get enough exercise and sleep, and eat the right foods, the academy’s Institute of Medicine recommends in a new report.
“A lot of conventional thinking has been that a big baby is a healthy baby,” said Leann Birch, director of the center for childhood obesity research at Pennsylvania State University, who was chairwoman of the 14-member panel that issued the 140-page report.
“What’s happened over the past decade or so is that the evidence has been building that early overweight or early rapid weight gain places kids at risk for later obesity,” she said.
About 10 percent of U.S. children between infancy and age 2 are already overweight, according to the report. Among kids ages 2 to 5, the situation is even worse — more than 20 percent are too heavy, a rate that has doubled since the 1980s, the report states.
Research shows that many parents do not realize infants and young children who are overweight are at risk for obesity, which increases the risk for a host of health problems.
Recommendations
The Institute of Medicine issued health recommendations Thursday for young children:
• Inadequate sleep might contribute to weight gain by causing metabolic changes, as well as by giving kids more time to snack. Babies up to age 2 should get nine to 12 hours of sleep every 24 hours; children ages 2 to 5 should get 11 to 13 hours.
• Kids should get at least 15 minutes of physically active play every hour.
• Children ages 2 to 5 should use television, computers, mobile devices and other electronic devices for less than two hours per day.
• Health care providers should encourage more women to breast-feed, which has been shown to reduce the risk for obesity.
