Study: Childhood Obesity Can Be Predicted as Early as 6 Months of Age

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Childhood obesity—a condition that affects more than 39% of Latino children, can be predicted as early as 6 months of age using simple body mass index (BMI), a new study reveals.

“BMI at 6, 12 or 18 months of age above the 85th percentile on the growth chart can accurately predict children at risk for early childhood obesity,” says Allison Smego, MD, a fellow in the division of Endocrinology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Center and the study’s lead author. “These children have a high lifetime risk for persistent obesity and metabolic disease and should be monitored closely at a very young age.”

For the study researchers studied lean and obese children under the age of 6 and found that the “BMI in children who become severely obese by age 6 began to differ from children who remain normal weight at about 4 months of age.”

“It’s not currently recommended to measure BMI in children under the age of 2, but we say it should be because we now know it predicts obesity risk later,” says Dr. Smego.