Obesity At Young Ages Is Becoming Increasingly Common

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and, perhaps not surprisingly, is now commonly being seen in teenagers. However, it would appear that this epidemic has now spread outside of the adult and adolescent population and we are beginning to see obesity at young ages that many people find it hard to believe.

Despite the fact that it is difficult to believe, a recent study that looked at almost 2,000 children reported a disturbingly large number of overweight and obese children at just three years of age.

The study looked closely at a group of children who were born into low income families from 1998 and 2000 in some twenty US cities. The weight and height of the children in the study were recorded at three years of age and the researchers discovered that about one-third of both black and white children were either obese or overweight with this number increasing to forty-four percent in the case of Latino children.

Although across the board these numbers are very worrying, the high percentage of obesity in Latino children is particularly worrying and is so far unexplained. However, the researchers did note that there was a propensity for Latino children whose mothers were overweight to be overweight themselves and further noted that it was more common for Latino mothers to give their children a bottle at bedtime.

In themselves these observations are thought to contribute to the higher percentage of obesity in Latino children, although they almost certainly do not provide the entire answer to the question of why Latino children demonstrated a markedly higher obesity rate.

As well as the stigma that has been attached to obesity and the pressure that these obese and overweight children are going to find themselves under, a variety of medical conditions such as asthma and high blood pressure are also starting to be seen at younger and younger ages. Young children are now also being seen with various conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and heart problems which were previously thought to be only 'adult' conditions.

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