PEDIATRICS Vol. 63 No. 1 January 1979, pp. 1-7
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Where Do the Heaviest Children Come From? A Prospective Study of White Children From Birth to 5 Years of Age

Mark S. Dine M.D.1, Peter S. Gartside Ph.D.1, Charles J. Glueck M.D.1, Larry Rheines B.A.1, Gail Greene B. A.1, and Philip Khoury B.S.1

1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the General Clinical Research Center of Cincinnati General Hospital, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati

A prospective follow-up study, from birth to age 5, of height, weight, and weight/height indices in 582 white children was carried out in a suburban private pediatric practice. The purpose of the study was to examine trends in height and weight over time, to evaluate any differences in measures of ponderosity between breast-fed and bottle-fed infants, and to locate the heaviest children at age 5. There were significant correlations between height, weight, the ratio of height to weight, the ponderal index (height/weight1,3), and the Quetelet index (weight/height2) achieved during the first year of life, and that attained at age 5 years. However, approximately 70% of the variance in weight and ponderosity indices at age 5 could not be accounted for by measurement of weight and ponderosity during the first year of life. Breast-fed and bottle-fed infants did not differ in weight and weight/height indices. There was a modest, but consistent, "tracking" pattern among children in the upper decile for weight and ponderosity at age 5 years in that 30% of them were also in the top decile for weight and ponderosity at age 6 months, and 30% to 40% were in the top decile at age 1 year. More than half of the variance in weight or indices of body proportion at age 5 is not accounted for by these variables in the first year of life, indicating limitations to the generalizability of the concept, that obese infants become obese children.

Submitted on February 16, 1978
Accepted on June 17, 1978




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