Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2008 Jun;87(6):1760-8.
doi: 10.1093/ajcn/87.6.1760.

Postnatal weight and height growth velocities at different ages between birth and 5 y and body composition in adolescent boys and girls

Jérémie Botton  1 , Barbara Heude, Jean Maccario, Pierre Ducimetière, Marie-Aline Charles; FLVS Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations
Free PMC article
Multicenter Study

Postnatal weight and height growth velocities at different ages between birth and 5 y and body composition in adolescent boys and girls

Jérémie Botton et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jun.
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: Rapid weight gain in the first years of life is associated with adult obesity. Whether there are critical windows for this long-term effect is unclear.

Objective: The objective was to study anthropometric measures in adolescence by sex according to weight and height growth velocities at different ages between birth and 5 y.

Design: Anthropometric measures, including fat and fat-free mass by bipodal impedancemetry, were measured in 468 adolescents aged 8-17 y. We retrospectively collected early infancy data and individually estimated weight and height growth velocities in 69.4% of them using a mathematical model. Associations between birth variables, growth velocities, and anthropometric measures in adolescence were studied.

Results: Weight growth velocity at 3 mo was associated with overweight (odds ratio for a 1-SD increase: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.04, 2.22), fat mass, and waist circumference in adolescence in both sexes and with fat-free mass in boys (r = 0.29, P < 0.001) but not in girls (r = -0.01, NS). Weight growth velocities after 2 y were associated with all anthropometric measures in adolescence, in both sexes. Between 6 mo and 2 y, weight growth velocities were significantly associated only with adolescent height in boys; in girls, associations with fat mass in adolescence were weaker.

Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis of 2 critical windows in early childhood associated with the later risk of obesity: up to 6 mo and from 2 y onward. The study of the determinants of growth during these 2 periods is of major importance for the prevention of obesity in adolescence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None of the authors had any conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Fitted weight and height growth curve between 0 and 12 years in two selected subjects from the study with high and low growth velocities at three months (descriptive data without statistical test).
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Weight and height growth velocity, predicted from the model, between 0 and 12 years in two selected subjects from the study with high and low growth velocities at three months (descriptive data without statistical test).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
OR and 95% CI of being overweight (IOTF definition) in 325 adolescent boys and girls for a 1 SD increase in weight growth velocity at different ages between 3 and 36 months (logistic model adjusted for gender).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Monteiro PO, Victora CG. Rapid growth in infancy and childhood and obesity in later life-a systematic review. Obes Rev. 2005;6:143–54. - PubMed
    1. Kinra S, Baumer JH, Smith GD. Early growth and childhood obesity: a historical cohort study. Arch Dis Child. 2005;90:1122–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dennison BA, Edmunds LS, Stratton HH, et al. Rapid infant weight gain predicts childhood overweight. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2006;14:491–9. - PubMed
    1. Stettler N, Zemel BS, Kumanyika S, et al. Infant weight gain and childhood overweight status in a multicenter, cohort study. Pediatrics. 2002;109:194–9. - PubMed
    1. Dietz WH. Periods of risk in childhood for the development of adult obesity-what do we need to learn? J Nutr. 1997;127:1884S–1886S. - PubMed

Publication types