A new study finds that much of a child’s “weight fate” is set by age 5, and that nearly half of kids who became obese by the eighth grade were already overweight when they started kindergarten.
The prevalence of weight problems has long been known — about a third of U.S. kids are overweight or obese. But little is known about which kids will develop obesity and at what age.
Solveig Cunningham, a scientist at Emory University, led the new study, which was published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine and paid for by the federal government.
It tracked a nationwide sample of more than 7,700 children through grade school. When they started kindergarten, 12 percent were obese, and 15 percent were overweight. By eighth grade, 21 percent were obese, and 17 percent were overweight.
The work shows the need for parents, doctors, preschools and even day care centers to be involved, said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a University of Colorado pediatrician. “You can change your fate by things that you do early in life,” he said.
