The Causes of Childhood Obesity from Infancy
Daisy Marcial
(PHED-1164-61861)
Professor Cure
October 19, 2022
Introduction
Obesity in young people has many of the same root reasons as it does in adults, including individual factors like behavior and genetics; luckily, it is curable and avoidable. The health of children can be affected before they are even born. Mothers need to be aware of what they eat (Gaillard, 2016). It’s also been shown that environment and other family members have a particularly significant impact. Other than physical health, obesity also affects psychological health. Kids get low self-esteem and may even experience depression at a very young age (Sonntag, 2017).
Literature Review
Obesity is defined as abnormal or an excessive amount of fat that accumulates and is a risk to health. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in both adults and children is rising. Globally, the incidence of overweight or obesity among children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 more than quadrupled from 4% to 18% between 1975 and 2016 (Stokes, 2016). Some pregnancy and perinatal factors have been repeatedly shown to correlate with offspring obesity. The most notable factors during maternity that can cause obesity in their offspring are having an elevated BMI, gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia, diet composition, and smoking during
pregnancy. Placental fatty acid has been identified as a key factor in fetal growth. Having
gestational diabetes affects long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid levels in the blood of the infant
which relate to obesity. It has been found that the maternal metabolism predominantly influences
pre- pregnancy obesity and less by mothers dietary intake during pregnancy. Stronger and more
consistent associations for maternal pre-pregnancy BMI than for gestational weight gain appear
to exist for both gestational weight gain and adverse neonatal outcomes, including preterm birth,
low Apgar score, neonatal hypoglycemia, and referrals to the neonatal intensive care unit
(Gaillard, 2016). Children from obese moms had a three times greater chance of developing a
poor childhood cardiometabolic risk profile than children from normal-weight mothers, which
included high abdominal fat mass, high blood pressure, high insulin and triglycerides levels, and
low HDL cholesterol levels (Sonntag, 2017).
The metabolites found to be linked to obesity are IR and BCAA. BCAA levels in
childhood can predict hypertriglyceridemia in early adulthood which can be in close relationship
to effects of BCAA on fatty acid metabolism. Phospholipids are another group of metabolites
which are related to childhood obesity. Human breast milk is the recommended feeding choice
until 6 months of age and is suggested to promote long-term health. High protein intake in
infancy is associated with higher BCAA blood concentrations and enhanced early growth. It was
proposed that an accelerated newborn weight growth may be caused by consuming significantly
more protein through instant formula than what a child needs. Infants in the high protein group
were shown to have a higher weight gain than the low protein group during the first 2 years of
life (Rauschert, 2017).