Two-month-old infants exhibit growth patterns

Researchers have found that infants as young as two months old already exhibit growth patterns that can predict the child’s weight by age 5.

Researchers have found that infants as young as two months old already exhibit growth patterns that can predict the child’s weight by age 5.

Almost from birth, we quickly saw this growth pattern emerge in our curves and growth charts for weight over height, Susan Ludington, the study’s lead investigator and the Carl W and Margaret David Walter Professor of Pediatric Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, said.

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Analyzing well-child records, normal-weight babies with a body-mass index (BMI) in the 17 percentile were found to have plateaued at about two months and rarely deviated over the next five years, she said.

Overweight or obese babies crossed the 17 percentile many months later (about age 14 months) and continued an upward climb when BMI growth patterns were monitored.

The researchers found that, by age 5, normal-weight children developed differently from birth than those considered overweight, obese or severely obese.