More babies are heavy now than 20 y...

More babies are heavy now than 20 years ago, a reality that prophesys ill for their health, according to the same of the first studies of overweight infants. The finding is controversial because a certain experts say there's no clear definition of obesity in the first couple years of life.

The research in the journal Obesity says the percentage of babies in subordination to 6 months old who were overweight or forward the brink of becoming thus increased from 10.4 percent in 1980 to 17 percent in 2001 according to the research onward children in Massachusetts. The percentage of overweight toddlers and preschooler also increased substantially.

one experts challenge the results. "We don't have a definition of overweight for children beneath 2, so these conclusions are questionable," says Jamie Calabrese, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' task force onward obesity.

still lead researcher Matthew Gillman of Harvard Medical academy says other experts have used the same guidelines he used. "The important point is the trendings are upward," he says.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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