Rapid weight gain in babies could lead to obesity later on

SALT LAKE CITY -- Childhood obesity is becoming a nationwide health care epidemic: 10 percent of preschoolers, 25 percent of elementary school kids and 33 percent of teenagers are tipping the scales. The first signs of obesity may appear in the first months of life.

There's often nothing cuter than dimples and rolls on a baby, but as first-time mom Diana Gumbs found out, they can also spell trouble. "I'm afraid that, you know, she begins to be a big girl like my mom, my sister," Gumbs said.

Childhood obesity has skyrocketed, and new research shows the problem starts early. Rapid weight gain during the first six months of life may place a child at risk for obesity by age 3.

The University of California-San Francisco's Dr. Robert Lustig is an expert on childhood obesity. "We have an epidemic of obese 6-month-olds in this country," he said. "Our genetic pool hasn't changed in the last 30 years, but boy oh boy our environment sure has."

Leading the way: the baby bottle. Breast milk is protective against obesity. It contains milk sugar, or lactose. But today many babies are getting a sugar load from a bottle of lactose-free formula.

"A coke is 10.5 percent sucrose; a bottle of formula is 10.3 percent sucrose. It's a baby milkshake," Lustig said.

Sucrose is half fructose and offers a triple whammy. "Number one, it helps stimulate hunger. Number two, it hurts your liver. And number three, it makes you, up here (in the brain), want more. You put those three things together, and we have a vicious cycle of over-consumption which is never-ending, and it's happening in six month olds."

These research results appear in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. For more information, CLICK HERE.

E-mail: drkim@ksl.com