A healthy weight for babies?

Outdated targets for infant growth may be starting healthy babies on the path to obesity, according to new research. This is just confirming what many mothers have long suspected – that the most commonly used growth charts, based on babies fed on high-protein formula milks, may classify lean but healthy babies as underweight. The generally used growth chart has been used for nearly 30 years. The main aim was to make sure that babies are not underfed and suffer from malnutrition. But, it is now increasingly being recognised that these charts were based on babies who were atypically heavy – almost all fed on high-protein formula diet, from white, middle-class families in Ohio, USA.

The charts were revised in 2000 by the Centers for Disease Control to include more breastfed infants. But, the previous charts have skewed infant nutrition towards overfeeding for decades, according to Bert Koletzko, who heads a major European programme, Earnest, which is set up to investigate the effects of infant nutrition on obesity in adult life.