More Than 10% of Preschoolers Are Overweight
DALLAS — The obesity epidemic is reaching down to the sandbox: More than 10% of U.S. children ages 2 to 5 are overweight, the American Heart Assn. reported Thursday.
That is up from 7% in 1994, according to the association’s annual statistical report on heart disease and stroke.
The 10% figure is for 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available, and the situation is probably worse now, said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, president-elect of the heart association and a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado.
“These statistics are not anything but alarming,†he said.
The prevalence of obesity among adults is well-known, with the condition increasing 75% since 1991. The problem among school-age children has been reaffirmed by new statistics showing that nearly 4 million children ages 6 to 11 and 5.3 million people ages 12 to 19 were overweight or obese in 2002.
The findings among preschoolers are a strong indication that young people’s weight problems are beginning even earlier.
“I think that what we’re seeing is that obesity is increasing across the board in adults, adolescents and children,†Dr. Christopher O’Donnell, chairman of the heart association’s statistics committee and associate director of the Framingham Heart Study, which has been following the health of generations of Massachusetts residents.
Experts blamed the higher obesity rate on the prevalence of junk food marketed to children, too much TV and the decline in the number of families who sat down together to eat.
Dr. Sarah Blumenschein, an assistant professor of pediatric cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, said doctors and parents must watch the weight of even very young children.
Dr. William Cochran, a pediatric gastroenterologist and nutritionist for the Geisinger Clinic in Danville, Pa., said he had seen many youngsters in his weight management clinic who weighed 300 to 400 pounds.
He said he was also seeing more children with diabetes, high blood pressure, even liver disease.
“Some kids are drinking a liter or two liters of soda a day,†said Cochran, a member of the task force on obesity for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “In 10 to 30 years, the incidence of heart disease and stroke and diabetes are just going to be astronomical.â€
