Obesity Trend in Infants Alarming

Researchers have published some rather sobering news to start the New Year; one-third of U.S. nine-month old children are overweight or obese¹, and once in that condition they are still having the problem at 2 years of age.

This is a shocking testament to bad parenting.  Over-nourished, poorly nourished, and malnourished mothers set the stage for major leptin problems in their children.  Even a father with a bad diet contributes to the formation of malfunctioning metabolic genes.  Not breastfeeding, eating cereal too soon, and drinking fruit juice instead of eating fruit are some of the key factors driving this problem.

The problem is extremely hazardous to the future health of the child.  This is because nerve wiring, and consequent metabolic lessons are learned during this time.  If the lessons being taught are fat ones, then the wiring is trained for obesity.  This problem is more like hardware than software.  It means that obesity is a learned metabolic behavior. 

The general guideline is that waistline in inches should not be more than ½ the height in inches.  This is fairly accurate for infants and children of all ages.  While this measurement allows for some extra weight, once the waistline goes past this point then metabolic problems are occurring.