Obesity test for 3 y.o.s

[Sunwyse 1]

Australia is bringing in new obesity testing for 3 year olds, trying to catch it before it becomes an health issue. I'm very much against this. I just don't see it as being that big a problem with 3 year olds. Some people take it too far and think any baby fat on a child is bad.

I'd prefer they wait until the children attend primary school at 5 and then make it part of an ongoing healthy lifestyle education.

[MacMadame 81]

I don't see how they can tell where a 3 year old is going to end up. Normal at that age is *so* variable.

[Froggi 4]

How can you tell at 3 years old if someone is going to be on the heavier side when they are older? hmm I guess you could tell if they were already like obese like.

[tapshoes 2]

Providing a counterpoint - at what age WOULD it be appropriate? When they finish growing (late teenager), adolescent (early teen)? I was hefty in kindergarten (as evidenced by my school pics) and in retrospect, perhaps I should have been more closely monitored before I was 5.

[Daisalana 33]

Got any info about this-article or something? It could be out of context, they may have figured out something linked to 3-year olds that can determine if they are predisposed to be obese, etc. Not necessarily that they have baby fat and are going to be obese.

[MacMadame 81]

I think for girls, you have to wait until they are through puberty. A lot of girls get "thick" at the start and end up perfectly fine at the end. But ONLY if you don't freak out and put them on diets. The ones that get put on diets end up with lifelong weight problems.

At least this has been my observation watching hundreds of young figure skaters go through puberty in my area.

I do think it depends on *how* overweight they are. If you are a child and you already are in the obese category, that is different than being a child who slips in and out of the overweight category.

OTOH, how many people here were put on diets when they were children? Quite a lot IME. Yet here they are having WLS. So obviously it didn't help, did it?

I don't know that the answer is, but I know that testing 3 year olds -- when we know so little about how people grow and how to treat obesity -- is not the answer. I think the answer is more research into how to treat obesity. What's the point of identifying people potentially at risk when, once they are identified, we haven't got the faintest idea of what to do about it?

[Daisalana 33]

I was fat at age 3, and my mom never once put me on a diet :redface: I still had WLS.

I was talking to a RL friend who is overweight about this.

Growing up, my dad always always had stashes of candies, Cookies, ice cream, etc. It was never a 'treat' in our house-- it was part of our diet. So I never grew up being restricted from these things, and I ate em.

My friend on the other hand, her parents were sticklers about sweets & treats. She said they were NEVER allowed to have them. So the day she moved out of their house, she binged on them all the time, always had stashes of these foods because now she was an adult and could do what she wanted.

We were both overweight growing up.

Edited October 7, 2008 by FairyFacade

[MacMadame 81]

We were both overweight growing up.

This exactly why I am against testing 3 year olds. We don't understand how and why some people get obese and some do not so there is no value in labeling people early on.

[heartfire 4]

Hate to tell ya this but in the US they're starting to monitor kids at age 2. I have a 2yr old and her pediatrician at her 2nd b-day appt (back in May) was saying that peds in the US are now checking for obesity at DD's age. Soon after, saw a thing on the news about it. I have no details. Unless it affects me directly I don't always pay attention and DD doesn't have any issues at this point, so in one ear and out the other!

Oh, I do remember that they're checking cholesterol levels and blood pressure in overweight kids. That was part of the monitoring starting at age 2.

[Jachut 487]

Luckily you dont see many fat three year olds yet.

I'm not sure. The earlier the better but my guess is that if a child is obese at age 3, then they're going to have a problem for life. Many many people become obese but by far most of them are not obese at 3 years old. Most children eat appropriately if they are fed appropriately and I think with my children, they were at least 10 before their natural body type began to show.

I've got 3 kids aged 12, 11 and 5. Eliza it 5 is gorgeously babyishly chubby in that normal healthy way, about average sized. Ewan at 10 was huge as a baby and toddler, a real chubber and is a skinny little kid now. Fraser had a 6 pack at 6 years old and in the last year or two has grown alarmingly big, he's overweight now, and I'm betting he will become obese as an adult. But at 3 you couldnt have foretold that.

If a kid is obese at 3 its because they have problems and are probably going to fight obesity for life and it needs more than this type of intervention. Even kids who are fed badly dont usually become fat this early on unless they are severely overfed.

[heartfire 4]

Jacqui, I agree with you. Unless they (government) are looking at it as just a monitoring process to see what happens with these kids.

I do know in my own family, when you look at pictures of my mom and sister as babies, they were already fat. Now my mom is one of 8 and only her other sister (6 boys!) had/have weight problems. My sister is younger than I am and we both ate the same foods. She was born a normal, healthy weight (we were both within ounces of each other) but by the time she was a year, she was a fat baby.

Me, on the other hand, had NO weight issues (other than my own perception of being the smallest fattie in a family of fatties, when I was anything BUT fat) until I hit my 20's. Then I started gaining.

My mom and sister both had bypass 5 and 8 years ago. Both had tried everything to lose weight. Nothing worked for them. They couldn't even LOSE weight! They both have done great with their surgeries. My sister has had 3 more kids since her surgery. I was able to lose weight but couldn't keep it off.

DD was adopted and I have no clue about her birthfather, but her birthmother's family is all normal sized with a few minor weight issues (say 10-20 over weight, kinda thing). Even at 2 she loves sports and being active so I'm hoping just by teaching her well, how to eat and how to be active (and getting healthy myself) that even if she does end up with some extra weight, she'll be able to control it and not have serious issues. We'll see.

Anyway, just a picture of my family. Kind of both sides of the coin that Jacqui was talking about.

Sorry it's so long. I talk too much! LOL!

[MacMadame 81]

Oh, I do remember that they're checking cholesterol levels and blood pressure in overweight kids. That was part of the monitoring starting at age 2.

That's different because it's a health issue. Though does anyone know what good cholesterol and blood pressure is in a 3 year old? Again, if they don't, then what's the point?

my guess is that if a child is obese at age 3, then they're going to have a problem for life.

Maybe, maybe not. A lot depends on what they define as obese. BMI assumes an adult body. There are attempts to do BMI for kids, but it seems like everyone uses a slightly different formula.

Plus, my fear is not that they just look for obese kids but start labeling other kids as being "at risk" and starting them on a lifetime journey of yo-yo dieting.

I think with my children, they were at least 10 before their natural body type began to show.

I think they have to get through puberty.

My son has always been underweight and short and puberty hasn't changed that. But his dad was underweight until he was 25 and is now obese.

My daughter was off the charts on height up until about age 2 but then went through a period of being short and scrawny. Then she started pre-puberty or puberty (whatever they call it) and she got thicker. Now she's perfectly proportioned with a slight tummy pooch. But by a lot of charts, she is overweight or "at risk" for being overweight, which is ridiculous. But those charts assume you don't start going through puberty until you are 11 or 12. If I say she's 11, then she goes back to being a normal weight.

Our PCP takes all the measurement but doesn't make any pronouncements, just says "looking good". It's fine to take measurement to increase our understanding of how people grow and become obese, but since most of what we know in this area is urban legend, guessing, and pronouncements with no data behind them, using those figures to do interventions or labeling of kids is wrong IMO.

[Daisalana 33]

I dunno, I can show you pics from me being born compared to my siblings, and despite being 2lbs smaller than my brother, I looked like a 'fat' baby compared to normal baby fat.. then from 1,2,3,4,5,6-etc.. I was always a large kid.. Fat & tall. Both my siblings ended up fat & tall eventually (like after the 10 year old phase I guess you guys are talking about), but they were both bean poles growing up. I was never a bean pole, I was 5 years old and my mom had to hand-make dresses for me because she couldn't find anything to fit me, by about 8 years old I was wearing old womens clothing because they did not make plus-childrens clothing.(I have plenty of fun pics of my spandex shorts, with long old women shirts with sequins all over and shoulder pads) Then in 4th grade I found men's pants and shirts that fit. When I was in 8th grade my mom found plus size 'trendy' clothes that would fit me via the internet.

I have a painting my nanny did of me in 1st grade, and I was wearing this hideous zebra print shirt, made for women. With my 2 front teeth missing and all that fun stuff.

[Jachut 487]

That's my point though Fairy, do you think that intervention at 3 really would have changed that for you? Or do you think its your body type, and in your genes and that was always going to be your lot?

I really think that if a child has weight problems like that then they are going to become obese adults, no doubt about it. We know that for adults, WLS is really the only intervention that works. My guess is that that would be true for those children too. No intervention is going to stop that obesity if its in their genetic make up and to be really obese at eight, I'd guess its an inevitable fact. Around me anyway, there's plenty of slightly overweight kids, which is worrying for their future. But really obese children, its just not that usual. I'd have to guess in Australia that most kids are active and relatively skinny and become fat later, because you just dont see that many really obese children.