Healthy LivingBad eating habits can form in first years
Dr. Stephen Ponder
Monday, May 21, 2007

In my medical practice I see a lot of obese kids. By far, this is the single greatest threat to the wellbeing of our children, and ultimately our country's future.

Very recently we crossed a line we've been predicting for several years: The current generation of children will not be expected to live as long as their parents.

That's right, U.S. life expectancy is falling. The reason is obesity.

A recent study published in the medical journal Pediatrics gave a straightforward explanation for why our children have gained so much weight in the past 20 years.

On average, children are consuming 150 more calories a day than they need for good health and normal growth. Coincidentally, a 12-ounce can of regular soda contains about 150 calories.

But it's not only sodas that contribute to this problem. A 2004 study of infant and toddler feeding practices in the U.S. showed that we're overfeeding babies by about 200 calories a day by the end of the first year of life.

In addition to formula feeding, many babies are being fed large amounts of fruit juice, well in excess of what is considered healthy.

A toddler or small child should not consume more than 4 to 6 ounces of fruit juice a day. Anything more than 6 ounces provides no additional health benefit, just extra calories. Also, flavored juice drinks have even less nutritional value than real fruit juice.

We also have an unhealthy tendency to introduce sodas to children in the first year of life. The extra calories and high phosphoric acid content of carbonated drinks will cause rapid weight gain and reduce bone thickness.

In another recent study, cavities and premature loss of baby teeth have been associated with sugary beverages given to infants and toddlers.

Repeat after me: No good comes from giving a baby or toddler soda.

Breast-fed babies have been shown by a large number of studies to reduce the risk of becoming overweight. For every month a baby is breast-fed, the risk of becoming overweight is lessened by 4 percent.

For example, after six months of nursing, the child's obesity risk will be reduced by 24 percent.

Whole cow's milk also has excess amounts of fat, which provides more calories than many infants need. High amounts of milk fat are good for a calf, but not for a small human. When cow's milk is introduced, preferably at 12 months of age, it should be low in fat.

Many of the children who I see with type 2 diabetes were overweight by the time they were 3 years old. They never lost any weight, just continued to gain and at a very rapid rate.

Most of the eating behaviors that these children have at age 8 were started before age 3. If we are to learn anything from this, it is to make changes early in life.

Better yet, healthy eating behaviors should begin at birth and continue through early childhood and beyond.

Dr. Stephen Ponder, who has type 1 diabetes, has been a pediatric endocrinologist for 20 years. He is director of the Children's Diabetes and Endocrine Center of South Texas at Driscoll Children's Hospital. Contact him at 694-4864 or stephen.ponder@dchstx.org

http://www.http://www.caller.com/new...n-first-years/

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Pre-Med Student

Wow, this report is a real eye opener. I see so much of the wrong things that are pointed out in this article going on with toddlers I know all the time.

Thanks for the great article. I do think that parents need to take more responsibility for making sure their kids eat right and get exercise.

I know a child that is only 8 years old and out-weighs my 13 year old son and all his classmates. His mother has been told over and over by his doctors that she has to meet with a nutrition specialist and change his eating habbits, but she won't do it. She feels like she's depriving him. At what point does this become more than lack of good judgement and more or less endangerment of a child?

This is sad, children that have a food derived disease,. that even I at age 40 don't have. No wonder their life expectancy is shorter. I will Repeat after You: No good comes from giving a baby or toddler soda.

While this may be true in some instances, theer are " peoples" that are naturally larger that do not have a predisposition to diabetes and extremely thin peoples who do.
I think this is another case of making teh article fit the subject matter to prove a singular point.

I know many Ethipians whi are very very thin who are diabetic and during my studies many obese Native Americans who are Obese who are not diabetic.
that just comes from my observation as an anthropology student studying metabolic diseses in indigenous peoples and as a Doctor of Naturology/Integrative medicine retired.

I am 16th generation diabetic, we all are primarily vegetarians and only on my fathers side are we diabetic....... thin as rails for some and normal for others.......

what we were4 discussing in class was teh posiibility that many of these young people now are developing it because they have been assidted births, invitro, supplanted eggs etc, where the mothers had to take fertility drugs or other medicines to maintain the pregenancies, do these drugs in fact have residual detrimental effects to precipitate diabetes. no one has done a study on that yet....
but it would be interesting to see the correlation of that on those studied.

The country's ill health isn't because of obesity, but because of the bad habits that we have learned to enjoy.

To say the aim is to stop obesity is foolish. That's locking the barn door after the horse is gone. The aim SHOULD BE to stop the habit of being unhealthy in habit -- not to only stop from gaining weight, but to have healthy kids around who will grow to try and be healthy adults.

According to this article, if it's just important to NOT BE FAT, then all kids should learn to smoke. That will keep their dreaded weight down.

The real aim is to stop the habit of not moving, and of eating poorly no matter your weight. All people, not just kids should take elevators instead of stairs, to never use the car for short rides. Our real aim should be to have a generation of muscular and heart healthy adults, no matter their weight.

Again, being thin doesn't guarantee health. Living a healthy lifestyle and making wise decisions about how you live, will help you be as healthy as you might be, no matter the weight.