Early childhood research: The impact of infant weight gain New European early childhood research has indicated that weight gain in infancy is more influential on adult health than during three to six years.

Study details

The research was been published earlier this year in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. It was conducted by a British and Swedish team, based on results from the Stockholm Weight Development Study.

The study looked at the development of 128 subjects (74 girls and 54 boys) from birth to 17 years, adjusted for:

• birth weight
• gestational age
• current height
• maternal fat mass
• socioeconomic status.

Recommendations

The research suggests that early post natal life is an important period where the risks to long-term health—particularly metabolic risks such as obesity—may be influenced. The study concluded that ‘Early interventions to moderate rapid weight gain even at very young ages may help to reduce adult cardiovascular disease risks.'

Read the abstract of ‘Association of weight gain in infancy and early childhood with metabolic risk in young adults'.

The full journal article is available to subscribers of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Did you like this article? Share it with others online!  - What does this mean?               You can subscribe to ECA's early childhood news feed here Learn more about RSS news feeds If you liked this article, you can 'social bookmark' it with others who might be searching for good content on early childhood. This means you can share your favourite webpages with others, or just keep an online list of your bookmarks so you can access them on any computer. Read more about social bookmarks More about digg>> More about del.icio.us>> More about google>>    More about yahoo>> More about stumbleupon>> More about reddit>> Close this window