Obesity Starts before Kindergarten, “Weight Fate” Set by Age 5

A new study which tracked a sample of more than 7,700 children through grade school across the U.S. found that of children between ages 5 and 14, nearly 12% developed obesity — 10% of girls and nearly 14% of boys. The study found that much of a child’s "weight fate” is set by age 5, and that nearly half of kids who became obese by the eighth grade were overweight when they started kindergarten. Nearly half of kids who started kindergarten overweight became obese teens. Overweight 5-year-olds were four times as likely as normal-weight children to become obese (32% versus 8%). NEJM Feb.2014