A recent article in the New York Times, Baby Fat May Not Be So Cute Afterall, reports on recent studies that show interventions aimed at school-aged kids for reducing  childhood obesity may need to be started well before kids enter school. Indeed,  older research has shown that a propensity to obesity may develop in the womb.

The possibility that obesity may begin in the womb was examined in a study on Pima Indians published about 10 years ago. The study looked at the link between the mother’s gestational diabetes and obesity rates of her children. Researchers followed siblings – those born before the mother was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and those born after – to see if rates of obesity increased in those children born after the mother’s diagnosis.

Siblings born after the mother was diagnosed with diabetes were more likely to have a higher BMI and more likely to develop diabetes. When compared to fathers diagnosed with diabetes, there were no differences in children born before or after the father was diagnosed. Researchers concluded that intrauterine exposure to diabetes created a higher risk of obesity and diabetes in offspring.

Current research is being done by the Institute of Medicine on obesity, sleep and eating patterns in 0-18 month old children. Clearly, there is much to study about childhood obesity – but how to treat overweight and obese infants and children younger than 3 has yet to be determined.