Kids Show Obesity Signs by Age Three

Weight-gain patterns could help family doctors better react to early signs of obesity.

A new study out of the Universite de Montreal suggests that obesity in children can be accurately predicted by the time a kid's about three years old. The research team studied the medical records of 2,000 children from Quebec from when they were five months old until they were eight years old. They noted weight gain was fairly consistent across all the kids for the first two-and-a-half years of their lives. But when they approach the three-year mark, children likely to become obese start gaining weight far more rapidly than their slimmer counterparts. The mothers of obese eight-year-olds were also much more likely to have been smokers and/or obese when pregnant with the kids.