Obese mothers raise obese kids

WASHINGTON - The children of overweight mothers are 15 times more likely to be obese by the age of 6 than the children of lean mothers, say US researchers.

Youngsters start piling on the kilos at 3, the team at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania found.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that doctors need to start watching out for the children of overweight parents early - by the age of 4 at the latest.

"We found dramatic increases in body fat between ages 3 and 6," said Dr Robert Berkowitz, who led the study. "We should be doing prevention and treatment programmes at a much earlier age. Everyone knows how difficult it is to take weight off once you are overweight."

Dr Berkowitz said his team was now examining the eating and exercise habits of the families they studied, but said other studies clearly showed genes played an important role. The dramatic spike in weight between ages 3 and 6 supported this.

"It suggests that some genes controlling body weight may become active during this period."

The team studied 70 children at the hospital over a six-year period. About half had overweight mothers and half lean mothers.

While babies, the two groups of children looked much the same in weight and body fat.

But one-third of the children of overweight women gained weight quickly after turning 3.

Of the 37 children of healthy weight women, only one became overweight. And, as seen in adults, children from poorer families were more likely to be overweight.

Dr Berkowitz said certain children must carry a combination of genes that made them much more vulnerable to what he called the "toxic Western environment", where it was difficult to exercise and food abounded.

He did not believe poor diet alone was to blame.

"It doesn't appear to be the factor entirely because we know there are plenty of lean people who eat hamburgers. The lean group stays pretty lean, but this high risk group really takes off."

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention say 15 per cent of American children are overweight.

- REUTERS