Childhood Obesity Spreads to Infants and Toddlers

It feels very 21st century to be blogging from an aircraft. I'm returning from Duathlon National which was held in a beautiful venue in Oro Valley, AZ. A highlight was watching an 84 year old gentlemen on the podium and realizing that the overall winner was for the first time 40 years old and he looked about half that. So while the news this weekend was upbeat for the older set the news is a bit grim for our younger citizens.

A study of 16,400 children born in the United States in 2001 was published in the American Journal of Health Promotion (2011;25 {13}. It  showed that 31.9% of nine month old infants and 34.3% of two year olds were obese or at risk for obesity. The sad truth is that obesity at nine months indicates that that child will stay in at risk categories for the rest of his/her life. The diseases this predisposes the child to mean that he/she may not live as long or as enjoyable a life.

Exercising Values is designed to get young children off to an excellent start with their weight and fitness. It helps moms to recover from pregnancy related weight gain. It's great to be in the 21st century but this 21st century problem must be combatted. The single greatest factor that is related to adult exercise involvement is previous positive experiences with exercise. Don't leave this to chance. Make sure that your child's early exercise experiences are positive, safe and effective.

Consistency is the most important factor and this can be achieved in just fifteen minutes a day. Longer weekend activities are encouraged when possible. Give your children something special to look forward to with you each day and on the weekends. Who knows, that young child may enjoy a life time of fun, health and fitness and stand upon a podium in their eighth decade, too.