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Early infancy – a critical period for development of obesitya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

M. W. Gillman
M. W. Gillman*
Affiliation:
Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr Matthew W. Gillman, Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, 133 Brookline Avenue, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02215, USA. (Email [email protected])
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Abstract

Abundant epidemiologic evidence from the developed world now shows that more rapid weight gain during the first half of infancy predicts later obesity and cardio-metabolic risk. In countries in transition, in which stunting is still prevalent, distinguishing the effects of gain in weight from linear growth remains a challenge. Moreover, very few studies to date have incorporated body composition measures during infancy, which is key to understanding determinants of infant weight gain that also predict later obesity. In addition to infant feeding type, potential determinants include the perinatal endocrine milieu. Animal and emerging human data raise the possibility that ensuring adequate leptin exposure to the growing fetus may regulate energy balance as the infant grows. Understanding these pathways, as well as examining the balance between cardiovascular and cognitive effects in both term and preterm infants, will point the way toward effective interventions to alter infant growth to prevent later obesity.

Keywords

growthinfancyleptinobesityweight gain
Type
Reviews
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 1 , Issue 5 , October 2010 , pp. 292 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2010

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Footnotes

a

Presented in part at the 6th World Congress on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, Santiago, Chile, November 2009, and at the 65th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop, Importance of Growth for Health and Development, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 2009.

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