Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, affecting almost 18 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls aged between 2 and 19. A new calculator designed by researchers at the Imperial College of London claims to be able to predict a child s obesity risk using a formula based on the child s birth weight, the body mass index of the parents, the number of people in the household, the mother s professional status and whether the mother smoked during pregnancy. This formula, developed based on a study set of 4,000 children born in Finland, also held up when tested using study sets from the United States and Italy.
In designing this calculator, lead study author Philippe Froguel hopes that a more preventive strategy will be adopted, considering that it is difficult for a child to lose weight once becoming obese. He also says that current public prevention campaigns have failed to prevent obesity in school age children and teaching parents about the dangers of over-feeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age would be much more effective.
But, is this calculator really going to be the answer in reversing the obesity epidemic? I know parents who won t let their kids have any sugar and they get them to taste vegetables and enjoy them. It s not impossible to do that, says ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom. And what happens if a child is not predicted to be at risk for obesity? Can a parent ignore health recommendations?
So, we ask our readers what do you think about this? Please tell us by emailing morning@acsh.org, or leaving a comment on our blog.
