Master Class
Although there are some glimmers of hope that U.S. birthweights may be declining, the average infant birthweight has remained significantly tilted toward obesity. Moreover, and alarming number of infants, children, and adolescents are obese.
In 2007-2008, 9.5% of infants and toddlers were at or above the 95th percentile of the weight-for-recumbent-length growth charts. Among children and adolescents aged 2-19 years, 11.9% were at or above the 97th percentile of the body-mass-index-for-age growth charts; 16.9% were at or above the 95th percentile; and 31.7% were at or above the 85th percentile of BMI for age (JAMA 2010;303:242-9).
While more recent reports of obesity in children indicate a modest decline in obesity among 2- to 5-year-olds (JAMA 2014;311:806-14), an alarming number of infants and children have excess adiposity (roughly twice what is expected). In addition, cardiovascular mortality later in life continues to rise.
The question arises, have childhood and adult obesity rates remained high because mothers are feeding their children the wrong foods or because these children were born obese? One also wonders, with respect to cardiovascular mortality in adulthood, is the in utero environment playing a role?