Medical News Today
December 19, 2008
UK researchers studying childhood diabetes found that childhood obesity is fixed by the age of five and suggested that the government should address more initiatives at children's home environment and not just their school environment.
Professor Terry Wilkin, of the Peninsula Medical School, Plymouth, UK, led the EarlyBird Diabetes study that followed over 200 children from birth. The findings are to be published in the journal Pediatrics.
All children gain weight as they grow from babies, but EarlyBird studied their excess weight. While government and public concern about the development of childhood obesity appears to center around early school-age issues such as school meals, physical education, after-school clubs, time spent in front of the TV, and playing computer games, EarlyBird found that over 90 per cent of the excess weight in girls and over 70 per cent in boys was already there by the time they reached school age.