In fact, preschool-age children who are overweight before age 5 are five times more likely to be overweight at age 12 than those who were not overweight before age 5, a new study finds.Another data suggest that levels of physical activity decline precipitously in girls in the United States during adolescence. Although the decline in our study began at the outset of adolescence, its rate accelerated so that by the ages of 18 and 19 years, the majority of the girls engaged in virtually no habitual physical activities other than those performed during school.

The obesity epidemic in our country has spared no age group, even our very youngest children," said lead researcher Dr. Matthew Gillman, an associate professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School. "Overweight rates are going up in young children, and ours is the first study to show that they are going up in infants, in addition to toddlers and preschoolers," he said.

In the period 2000-2004 on average13% of the boys and 16% of the girls suffered from overweight. At some ages the percentage of children suffering from overweight is double those measured in 1997.Studies suggest that gaining excess weight during the first months of life is associated with becoming overweight and developing high blood pressure years later. Other data suggests that infants who gain excess weight are more likely to suffer from wheezing, which can lead to asthma.

Overweight and obese children may also develop Type 2 diabetes, a disease once thought to only occur in adults. Type 2 diabetes can cause heart and kidney disease, blindness and loss of limbs. Children at a healthy weight are free of these weight-related diseases and less at risk of developing these diseases in adulthood.

A national inquiry "Stocktaking type 2 diabetes in children" showed that about 60 children and adolescents with diabetes type 2 are known by Dutch paediatricians (inquiry 2003/2004 by Dr. C Rongen-Westerlaken, paediatrician/endocrinologist, Canisius Hospital Nijmegen. Data concerning 4.000 patients with diabetes aged 0-18 years). Almost all these 60 children suffer from (serious) overweight and they are mainly girls. Despite the fact that the absolute number is still small, it is alarming that this ‘sign of old age’ is found in young people nowadays too.

In fact, preschool-age children who are overweight before age 5 are five times more likely to be overweight at age 12 than those who were not overweight before age 5, a new study finds.Another data suggest that levels of physical activity decline precipitously in girls in the United States during adolescence. Although the decline in our study began at the outset of adolescence, its rate accelerated so that by the ages of 18 and 19 years, the majority of the girls engaged in virtually no habitual physical activities other than those performed during school.

"The problem of obesity and overweight in kids is they don't outgrow it," said lead author Dr. Philip R. Nader, professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego."A lot of people think that baby fat will go away and not to be too concerned, but this isn't the case,"he said.

Childhood obesity may lead to earlier onset of puberty for girls, a U.S. study concludes.

Puberty is the time in life when your body changes from that of a child to an adult. It includes rapid growth of bones and muscles, changes in body shape and size, and development of your body's ability to reproduce. Puberty normally takes place in girls between ages 8 and 16 and in boys between ages 9 and 14.Early pubic hair, breast, or genital development may result from natural early maturation or from several other conditions.Early puberty which is natural in every way except age is termed idiopathic central precocious puberty.

The study of 354 girls from 10 different regions in the United States found that increased body fat in girls as young as age 3 and large increases in body fat between the age of 3 and the start of first grade were associated with earlier puberty, defined as the presence of breast development by age 9.

"Our finding that increased body fatness is associated with the earlier onset of puberty provides additional evidence that growing rates of obesity among children in this country may be contributing to the trend of early maturation in girls," study lead author Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Michigan, said in a prepared statement.

Lee noted that girls in the United States are entering puberty at younger ages than they were 30 years ago. Over that same time, there's been a significant increase in obesity rates among American children.

"Previous studies had found that girls who have earlier puberty tend to have higher body mass index (BMI), but it was unclear whether puberty led to the weight gain or weight gain led to the earlier onset of puberty. Our study offers evidence that it is the latter," said Lee, who is also assistant professor in the department of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the U-M Medical School.

The odds of entering puberty earlier went up by 44% for each 1-point increase in BMI score at 3 years old. The study also found that girls started going through puberty earlier if they were non-white (mostly African American) or had a mother who had also physically matured early.

By the fourth grade, 30% of the girls were either at risk for being overweight or overweight, and 168 — or nearly half — were considered to be "in puberty."

The study noted that early puberty has been associated with other health issues, including:

*mental health and behavioral problems

*difficulty functioning socially

*using alcohol earlier

*earlier sexual intercourse

*teen pregnancy

*greater likelihood of being obese and having reproductive cancers as an adult

"Beyond identifying how obesity causes early puberty, it's also important to determine whether weight control interventions at an early age have the potential to slow the progression of puberty," she noted.