Negative, The path to obesity is when the parents buy their kids a computer!

At three months, my baby was pronounced "extremely obese" by a pediatrician. However, my baby was ONLY breasfed for the first four months and there was no way to calculate how much milk she was drinking. Few women would pull an infant off the breast before they are finished.

The pedidatrician said that in cases like this, he looks at the parents' bodies and if they are not overweight, he said he doesn't worry much about the baby. But if the parents are obese, then family intervention is necessary. He also asked if the parents were fat babies, as this trend can be inherited.

From age 5 months to one year, my baby was then formula-fed, but when she turned one year, the pediatrician recommended that she drink lowfat milk, not whole milk, due to her body fat. In addition, close attention was paid to what foods she was served and in what quantities. Juice was very limited, and other beverages were sugarfree.

By the time she was four, she was drinking nonfat milk and followed a lowfat, low sugar, whole grain, no frying diet. As a child and teen, she was encouraged to exercise in games and sports, especially sports like soccer where she would run a lot in games and practices.

Yet once an older teen has a car and some money, parents can't control what foods a teen buys or consumes away from home. Food is central to teen socializing. In college, alcohol consumption adds to their calorie intake. Exercise if often insufficient to ward off extra pounds by this time.

This is the biggest crock I have ever heard of! Having a doctor tell you your baby is too fat is utterly ridiculous! Kids are obese because their parents feed them foods that are bad for them when they're older. "Path begins before 2" my a@@! Next thing you know, they're going to tell moms NOT to bf because they don't know what mom is eating to make baby fat. Such a stupid article.Obama and his wife need to stay OUT of our homes. Stop telling us we're too dumb to do what's best for our kids. Why am I going to listen to a smoker on what's best for my kids?

I've known this since college, which was 25 years ago. I'm not sure why this is news. A chubby baby is not a healthy baby, in general. It usually means they will face weight problems in the future. And personally, I don't find chubby babies cute. I like normal sized babies.

Now we see an even bigger problem where more and more women are giving birth to large babies and these babies end up just getting bigger and bigger. I know people who have had 10, 11 and 12 pound babies! I feel like they got cheated out of the little baby stage and gave birth to a 3 month old. But then again, most of these big baby births could be avoided if mothers would watch what they put into their mouths when they are pregnant. Not only that, I've seen mothers giving tiny babies junk food - McDonald's fries and cookies, etc. Bad eating habits start young. Michelle Obama is right. Childhood obesity IS a problem. But the cause of the problem, I think, are the parents. THEY can control what their children eat. I know I do. Traci Madison (above poster) did, too.

My 3rd baby is a bit chubby, might even be over that 85% rating. However, I have fed him no more and no less than I did my first two and they were both normal weight at his age. Heck, they were all even on the same type of formula (can't breastfeed, I don't produce enough) Of course I give him a graham cracker or an arrowroot cookie from time to time, did the same with my other two. Otherwise he eats fruits and veggies. He isn't even eating meat yet. (He's a little over a year old.) My dad's side of the family is tall and stocky, big frames, big builds. I have that too. I am slightly overweight but not by much and my doctor tells me it is due to a hormonal condition called PCOS and I am on medication for it. Even if I weighed 120 pounds, I would never look like a model of the same weight, I have too big of a frame. My 3rd child has just inherited that too. My second son was a little bit chubby when he was that age but not quite as big and we thought he was going to turn out to be short and stocky. He's 7 now and tall and skinny as a rail. My husband was the same...VERY fat as a baby and by the time he was in high school he only weighed about 130 pounds. When he joined the army they actually put him on a special diet to get him to gain weight! So while it may be the case that SOME of these chubby babies may grow up to be obese, by no means all will, and maybe not even a majority. I have not done a thing wrong in the feeding and care of any of my children, including my 3rd who is the chubbiest at the infant/toddler stage. I will continue to feed my "chubby" baby the way I always have...whole milk (the fat is needed for brain development), fruit, veggies, and yes the occassional finger food snack...just like I did my other two who are now normal height and weight (maybe even a bit skinnier than they should be!) A lot of these "chubby" babies will lose the excess when they start getting up and around more and running and playing. I do not believe that a chubby baby necessarily predicts an obese child in the future. That has not been the experience I've had with my children and most other "chubby" babies I've known in my life were "normal" size by the time they were 4 or 5. What are we supposed to do...NOT feed the baby when they're hungry? Let them cry and scream? You have 2 food choices for infants...breast milk or formula. There's not much room there for "bad" food choices. As long as you are not feeding them when they are not hungry (and they usually won't take it when they're not) I think it's fine even if they are a bit chubby. Perhaps these scientists should be looking at the genetics and looking for possible metabolic problems with the chubby infants that become obese later. I would bet good money that the chubby babies that become obese later are because once they started eating "solid" food, the parents gave them mostly junk or let them snack a lot and that it really has little to do with the fact that they were chubby as infants. I'd also bet money if it were possible to take these chubby infants away from obese parents that didn't watch what they ate and would feed their child crap once the child reached solid food stage, they wouldn't become obese children. The ones that still became obese I would suspect a genetic/metabolic problem. When you see fat parents, you usually see fat kids but when you see healthy weight parents with a chubby baby and then see them a couple years later, their once chubby baby is usually a normal healthy weight. It doesn't take a lot of brain power to figure it out.

It may be the path but the road is fast food and junk food, eating too much, sugars, no exercise, sitting at the computer all day, etc, etc. In other words a life stle that makes the body become obese.

High fructose corn syrup is a major culprit for childhood obesity, diabetes, and attention deficit disorder that continues into adulthood. Read the fine print. You will find it in all kinds of foods and drinks from so-called healthy fruit drinks to canned raviolli that kids love. It is a needless ingredient that is used by food makers to make more profit at the expense of our children's health and rising health care costs. But because of the politics, nothing will be done about it not even by the First Lady just like nothing will be done about schools providing children with afternoon sports activities and study halls to help keep them physically and mentally fit while their parents are working. Two simple cost effective cost savings measures that will simply be ignored while money is thrown at the problem ineffectively at taxpayer expense.

Gee all this obesity talk. Average age of humans is up, death rates are down and the world is getting over populated, but since Mrs. Obama needs a pet project might as well be a pc easy target to attack project. Obese people and smokers are ruining the world it seems. Not greedy politicians and business people, not rapists, not murderers, not terrorists, not poverty, but obese people and smokers. Geez we spend so much time and energy attacking easy targets because they are just that, easy. Maybe people should target the harder problems out there. Oh yeah that would require working hard and getting less attention and we can't have that now can we.

Hahahaha….As a baby, I was called the Michelin Man. I was so fat, I made Rosie O’Donnell look like Twiggy. For you youngsters, you’ll have to google Twiggy. But, through a life of exercise and eating healthy, I was 5-9, 150 pounds in high school. Today, at 58, I am a little heavier at 5-9, 160. All this talk about heredity and obese babies equaling obese teens and adults is silly.

They need to start fining parents caught in restaurants putting hamburgers, fries, and cola drinks in front of their two year old children. These so-called "adults" are either high on something or they have some sick and perverse desire to see their kids looking as fat and unattractive as they are themselves.

Ha ha ha..I had 2 premies (5 lb variety) ...when I got them home and fed them they porked up..like all premies do. I am 5 10 with PCOS and my husband is 6 4. He has an extremely large frame and i have a large frame. My kids were both chubby at 2 due to picky eating. When my oldest turned 5 he "thinned" but due to bone structure needs husky pants. He is 10 years wears size 16 husky pants XL shirt and is fairly muscular and is a good looking kid (definitely not fat a 3 sport kid). My littlest has some pudge but he has no rest in his butt. I have no worries about either of them because they are active. I don't buy this. I am literally 2 lb overweight and am nagged by my dr to lose. We are very active as a family. I just hate to see how they will start nagging parents of infants and toddlers over this. I gues this is just bias against people that don't look like models. I realize chilhood obesity is a crisis, but they need to address the problem later after the childhood pickiness goes away and kids begin to naturally eat different things. For example 3 year old only will eat strawberries 2 weeks straight for fruit ...next it is apples. One week it is baked chicken nuggets the next it is fish sticks. He refuses beef and pork completely. I just have to laugh at some of this. IF you were a twigs and had porky babies..I guess this would be huge...common sense must prevail.

Hey MSNBC! Although you are the poster-child for objective reporting, before we guilt mothers into unlatching their children prematurely while breast feeding, lets practice a little intellectual honesty and consider all the factors involved in childhood obesity.

New York Times: "Breast-Fed Babies May Have a Leg Up in the Battle Against Childhood Obesity" http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/health/13sbre.html

So, the people in DC, who think they are elitist, believe they have the right to tell us what we have to do. I get very tired of the idiots in DC dictating to me.

They want to control what and how much we eat, the kind of cars we drive, the amount of electricity we use, and control our medical care. I think its time we get people in DC with some common sense. They are more concerned about these things than in protecting our country.

Wow, is childhood obesity going to be the trendy new topic to distract us from the economy going down the tubes. Racking up debt your children can never pay off, is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than your kids overeating. You can solve the obesity thing by turning of the television, sending the kids outside and teaching them how to play tag. Problem solved.

It is going to be a bit more difficult getting out of the obese debt thing American is wearing around its waist.

Did anyone forward this to Bill Clinton and Aretha Franklin?

i think genes have more of a role in fat than in gays. you see a mother/father and again and again their kids will have the same physical appearance, the same weight overall etc...

this is in perfect timing of them cutting all the food programs, etc.. down. co-incidental? i think not. typical for government.--my sisters and i are all thin. none of us were breast fed. we are half bohemian. my kids were all breast fed. they were fat as babies. they are all thin now.

Interesting article but incomplete. I am concerned that well meaning parents will try to act on this information an unintentionally harm their child. The reporter needed to ask the researchers or other child nutrition expert about what concerned parents should do based on these findings. Many times the researchers will say that their findings need to be replicated in other studies before they are acted upon.

Kids and parents have way too much free time to play videogames. The US has too much fast food that's cheap and easy to get. It's no wonder our kids are fat too. But fat kids usually come from fat parents who don't eat well nor exercise. Here's a good summary of what we should do as parents for our kids

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/health_safety/childhood-obesity.shtml

We have too much access to cheap fast food and spend waaaay too much time on computers/videogames.

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/health_safety/childhood-obesity.shtml

I was a breast fed baby. I tried very hard with my own daughter but, had complications and had to stop. I was sad, not because of weight issues but, because of the health benifits. She is currently a good eater and of normal weight. I am not disputing which is better.

I want to know how many women on here have heard these comments from other women in their lives.

" I started giving my baby cereal in her bottle when she was 1 mo old, I had to cut a larger hole in the nipple so it would flow

" i gave my baby juice before 4 mo I started at 1 mo"

" I started giving my kid baby food or some solid food before 1 year"

Im sure alot of you have heard these same things. I have worked with a Pediatrician and seeing kids that are sick because of diet and or lifestyle is no fun. Of corse people are going to do what they want, and thats fine with me. I, however, will follow the advice of the pro's and American Pediatric Association when it comes to the health of my child.