Overweight Mothers, Overweight Kids?

Six-year-olds whose mothers are overweight are 15 times more likely to be obese than children of slim mothers, shows new research out of the US.

The researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania also say that efforts to prevent obesity should focus on children as young as four, which underlines the potential role of healthy foods developed specifically for children.

The International Obesity TaskForce (IOTF) warned last year that at least 155 million school-age children worldwide are overweight or obese, a growing problem that needs to be tackled now if more serious ailments such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease are to be avoided.

The US team followed 70 children over a six-year period, including 33 with overweight mothers and 37 with lean mothers.

During the first two years of age, weight and body composition differed little between the two groups. But those children whose mothers were overweight had greater overall weight by age four, and both greater weight and more body fat by age six, they write in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (81, pp140-146).