Researchers have developed an online calculator that can estimate whether a newborn baby will gain unnecessary weight later or not.
The formula can predict the infant's obesity risks based on a series of factors like birth weight, body mass index (BMI) of parents, number of people in the family, job profile of mother and incidence of smoking during pregnancy.
For developing the formula, researchers led by professor Philippe Froguel used data that followed 4,000 children from Finland. At first, the team developed a test based on the genetic variations to detect obesity early. However, it proved to be less accurate. Later, using non-genetic information, the team developed the formula, which succeeded in predicting obesity risks early in newborns.
"This test takes very little time, it doesn't require any lab tests and it doesn't cost anything," Froguel, from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said in a news release. "All the data we use are well-known risk factors for childhood obesity, but this is the first time they have been used together to predict from the time of birth the likelihood of a child becoming obese."
The new formula is expected to help parents take proper precaution and intervention to prevent their baby from becoming obese.
"Once a young child becomes obese, it's difficult for them to lose weight, so prevention is the best strategy, and it has to begin as early as possible," Froguel said. "Unfortunately, public prevention campaigns have been rather ineffective at preventing obesity in school-age children. Teaching parents about the dangers of over-feeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age would be much more effective."
The results of the study have been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
These results come at a time when childhood obesity affects 17 percent of all American children and teens. According to CDC, obese youth are at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (high cholesterol or high blood pressure), prediabetes, sleep apnea, social, psychological problems and poor self-esteem.
In their view, children who are heavy in childhood are more likely to grow up as obese adults, escalating the risks of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer and osteoarthritis.
