title: A pilot study: does obesity begin in the first year of life?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if growth patterns in healthy infants can identify associations with obesity at age 5 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Body mass index growth patterns from birth to 1 year were described for cohorts of children who were classified at 5 years as normal weight (n = 61), overweight (n = 47), obese (n = 41), and morbidly obese (n = 72). A longitudinal analysis of body mass index means based on the age postbirth was conducted and graphed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Distinctions in growth patterns were evident before 1 year postbirth. Children who were normal weight at 5 years demonstrated a growth pattern in the first year that differed from children who were overweight, obese, or morbidly obese at 5 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Obesity growth patterns were seen in infancy and are clinically important because identification of infants who do not fit a normal weight pattern can occur and thus guide individualized interventions in the first year postbirth while precursors of later health are still forming.
authors.affiliation: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ludington-Hoe
authors.forename: Lisaann S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Gittner
authors.forename: Harold S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Haller
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000503:physiopathology; D050177:Overweight / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010865:Pilot Projects
keywords: body mass index; infant growth; pediatric obesity