An obesity index for six-month-old children

Obesity prognosis: a longitudinal study of children from the age of 6 months to 9 years

The development of body fatness and leanness is examined in an ongoing prospective nutrition and growth study. Individual skinfold thicknesses, relative weights, weight gains, activity levels, and caloric intakes were examined at seven ages between 6 months and 9 years. Changes in body fatness in this group of children provide evidence that the obese infant usually does not become the obese child. Weight gain in infancy is also a poor predictor of 9-year old obesity. Changes from obese to non-obese or lean are often not linear. There is evidence that impending or actual obesity begins at ages 6 to 9 years with some predictability provided as early as age 2 years for girls, age 3 years for boys.

[Nutrition and somatic development of infants in the canton of Berne (with special emphasis on the question of obesity)]

160 babies of 3, 6 or 9 month were investigated in weight, length, subscapular and triceps skinfolds and a history of their nutrition since birth was taken. At the age of three month purely breast-fed babies are significantly lighter and show less weight gain since birth than purely bottle-fed ones. Girls fed on demand are significantly lighter and show thinner subscapular skinfolds than girls fed in fixed intervals. Boys show a similar tendency in weight, but the opposite tendency in skinfolds. The results suggest that feeding on demand supports the natural course of somatic growth of babies. The frequency of feeding on demand and the source of information about baby-foods vary greatly with social class.

An index for assessing weight change in children: weight/height ratios

Weight and height data from two studies were recomputed, and original data were computed using a Weight Index formula that accounts for the interaction of actual weight/height changes in growing children and compares this ratio with that of normed weight/height ratios for equal-aged children. Recomputing the data of one study showed that the Weight Index is a more sensitive procedure for assessing long-term behavioral treatment of obesity for girls than weight alone. Recomputing the data of a second study showed that the Weight Index formula is consistent for boys and girls and is a more sensitive procedure for assessing long-term effects of a variety of medical treatments for obesity than the Ponderal Index or weight alone. Computation of the data for 17 "normal" children in a preschool class showed a zero Weight Index score before and after a six-month interval elapsed without treatment. The procedure may be useful in assessing ponderosity or anorexia over intervals of six months or more with growing children or difference between actual and normed weight over shorter intervals.