How To Prevent Your Infant From Becoming An Obese Toddler

In many cultures, including our own, a chunky baby is considered a healthy baby. Even I, a child obesity expert, was proud of my infants' fat rolls, taking them as a sign that my body was providing all the milk my baby needed to grow strong. As a general pediatrician, I have seen many nervous parents worried that their newborns were too thin. I almost never saw parents who were worried that their baby was too chubby.

Yet now, researchers are warning that babies who gain weight rapidly in the first six months of life are at a much greater risk of becoming obese toddlers.

According to a new study in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, rapid weight gain in early infancy is a more important indicator of future obesity than how much a baby weighed at birth, the weight of the infant's parents, or the number of pounds mom gained during pregnancy.

"The perception has been that a chubby baby and a baby that grows fast early in life is healthier and all the baby fat will disappear," said the paper's lead author, Dr. Elsie Taveras, an assistant professor in Harvard Medical School's ambulatory care and prevention department. "But (that) is not the case."

More interesting, the finding held even for premature babies and babies who were underweight at birth!

One caveat to the study: the kids were only followed for three years. It would be interesting to see what happens to these children throughout the next decade of their lives.

So what can we do to prevent our babies from gaining too much weight in their first six months? I can tell you one thing you must not do; do not put your baby on a diet. Let me say that again. Do not jump to what seems to be the obvious conclusion. IT IS NOT SAFE TO PUT A BABY ON A DIET!

But maybe we can teach parents to better understand their babies' cues. Babies do indicate when they are no longer hungry. Babies often turn their heads away when they are satiated. Yet many parents still try to get the last few ounces in. Perhaps parents can stop the feeding at the first sign of this cue. If the baby is, in fact, still hungry, she will let you know; your baby will cry, fuss and show 'rooting' behaviors. If that occurs, feel free to start to feed again. Parents must give up their preconceived notions of how much a baby should drink at each feeding.

Breastfeeding is another way to prevent too much weight gain. While it is not impossible to overfeed a baby while breastfeeding, it is less likely. Breastfed babies are better able to control their intake because parents have no way of determining exactly how much their baby is drinking. Even breastfed babies give cues when they are done feeding. A breastfed baby will come off the breast when hunger subsides. But I remember, while breastfeeding my own kids, thinking that they hadn't been feeding long enough to be done. I worried that they hadn't yet reached the nutrient-rich 'hind milk'. So I would put them back on the boob. We need to rethink this knee-jerk reaction. If a baby comes off while breastfeeding, moms should wait before trying to feed again. As with the bottle-fed baby, if he is still hungry, he will let you know!

I hope this study causes us to rethink our attitudes toward bigger babies. Parents of normal-weight babies should not worry that their babies are too skinny and therefore unhealthy. Parents must not strive for the chubby baby that has become our society's ideal. It's time to change our understanding of what makes a healthy baby!

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