Rapid weight gain in Baby girls may signal future health problems

April 28, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: Baby Health, News

New research suggests that babies who rapidly gain weight during the first months of life are more likely to become overweight or even obese when they get older. Being overweight or obese could put kids at an increased risk of a range of diseases in later life, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

The study of girls concluded that weight gain in the first nine months was critical to how heavy they would be at 10 years old.

Funded by the World Cancer Research Fund, data was collected from 2,715 girls from birth to two months, two to nine months and nine to 19 months.

Faster weight gain during the first nine months was related to a higher body weight, height and overall body mass index scores when the girls were 10. The rate of weight gain between the ages of nine months and 19 months did not have the same effect.

Official statistics from the national child measurement programme suggest that 22 per cent of children in England are overweight or obese by the time they start school, while nearly a third (31 per cent) fall into these categories at age 10 or 11.

The study, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, also found that girls who put on weight too quickly in infancy were more likely to start their periods at a young age, which has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer.

Previous research has suggested girls who start their periods early are more likely to be overweight as adults.

The study, from researchers at Cambridge and Bristol universities, is the first to have linked early periods to rapid weight gain early in infancy.

The researchers said that it was the speed at which babies of nine months put on weight that was the important factor.

Ken Ong, from Cambridge, said: “The suggestion that weight gain in the first nine months of a girl’s life increases the risk of being overweight and starting her periods early is interesting because in the UK both childhood obesity and the number of girls who start their periods early are rising.

“If we are serious about tackling childhood obesity, we need to understand why children become overweight in the first place and that is why this study is important.”