War on obesity now targeting toddlers

by Angie Felton (Subscribe to Angie Felton's posts) Jun 11th 2008 9:00AM

Categories: Babies, Toddlers, Health & Safety, Eating & Nutrition

What some parents view as "baby fat" might be considered "overweight" to a pediatricians, which is why weight management programs aimed at children as young as two years old have been developed.

In response to doctors reporting seeing patients overweight at younger and younger ages, weight management programs are springing up all over the country aimed to help toddlers and their parents learn healthy eating habits. "We used to think that chubby babies were cute and we didn't have to worry about it," says pediatrician Diane Butler. But, "this is the age at which lifestyle food choices need to be made to prevent the kid from being a chubby adult."

And the doctors aren't imaging things. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates among 2- to 5-year-olds rose to 12.4% on average for the years 2003-2006, compared with 5% in 1980.

While I'm grateful these programs have been created, I'm still in shock they are needed. When I was a kid, there were two overweight kids in our entire school. Today, those kids wouldn't even be considered fat because there are several kids larger than that in every classroom. What are we doing to our kids?!

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Comments (3)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ninainindia 6-11-2008 @ 9:40AM

That's that for the people that say that the parents aren't to blame. A toddler only eats what the parents feed him/her.

I think the doctor can see the difference between a naturally chubby kid and a kid that is overweight because of his/her diet.

Christy 6-11-2008 @ 10:21AM

You know, I had an issue with my daughter. She was born 8 lbs 11 oz and had all the little chubby rings on her arms and legs. She was so adorable and everyone said so too. Everyone actually laughed off my worry that she could continue to be chubby if not monitored. In the back of my mind I thought that I had done something wrong while pregnant. I thought that caving into my cravings that I in turn hurt my daughter because of how big she was. As she continued to grow her appetite did too. I was breastfeeding and ended up not producing enough to satisfy her. She is now a beautiful 2 year old in the 60th percentile on her weight coming in at 29 lbs, but it is always a concern for me becasue she is such a picky eater. She didn't like meat for almost a year. It is so difficult to get her to eat veggies even if I puree them and try to hide them in her food. I try not to give her "junk" food but as someone who has difficulty getting her child to eat healthy, I can see how many parents fall for the easy route by giving their child what they want or what is easier. Obesity is a problem in my family so I am trying to be headstrong about not giving up. At some point she will eat healthier but in the mean time I suppose it will always be a constant worry as I don't want to sabotage her diet. Plus, it is hard to find things that aren't filled with sugar, fat, perservatives and all the rest of the junk thrown into food. You would hope that with obesity being a problem for children and adults that we would start doing something about our food products.

Jenni 6-11-2008 @ 10:23AM

A toddler needs to be given a healthy diet! I do fear what some will read into this though, because there does need to be some fat on a baby to toddler. I have seen some toddlers at the beginning stages of toddlerhood that people (doctors included) have called fat; but given a few months of toddling and running around they thin out beautifully.

So, I only cation people while reading this to wait for that high movement period.

I do, however, see that parents need to be educated on healthy eating practices; especially when I see a toddler having an ice cream cone for breakfast because, "Well, that's what he wanted"

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