Image found here.
According to this article, it turns out that those cute, chubby babies you love to cuddle, aren’t so adorable…they’re really just covered in unhealthy fat. So now babies are under pressure to be thin? They are just babies! The article is also quoted as saying,
interventions aimed at school-aged children may be, if not too little, too late.
So, if you’re out there and you have a chubby school-aged child, it’s too late for him/her as he/she is destined for a life of obesity. While I’m not trying to debate that there are children who may suffer with health problems as a result of a poor diet, I am questioning this new scientific research that suggests that babies are in danger of being obese straight out of the womb! This type of obesity-crazed scare tactic doesn’t always get the effect it sets out to produce. Most will take these harsh measures upon themselves and think, “Yes! This is an excuse for me to not eat and try to be thin! Obesity is an epidemic.” Now, whether you believe it is or isn’t, an epidemic is a whole other issue, one that I’m not willing to get into (but if you really do want to get into it I suggest reading Paul Campos’ Obesity Myth). The reality is that many people (many women) have been made to believe that the obesity epidemic is real in their lives and that they are just one to two cheeseburgers away from obesity. It also goes on to say,
While obesity prevention programs have typically refrained from addressing weight gain in toddlers and infants, Birch’s study committee is looking specifically at developing a set of obesity prevention recommendations for children between the ages of 0 and 5.
I think there is a good reason why these programs have generally refrained from “tackling” babies and toddlers because, hmm I don’t know, maybe it’s just a little crazy?
all i know is: i effing LOVE that baby’s face. and i’m not in the least bit concerned with it’s alleged obesity or later life will probably be fat problems. it is quite obviously going to grow into a kickass person – look at the eyes! adorable.
This is just plain… Well, nonsense!! Why does the article make it sound like such a tragedy, or for that matter, a new finding? There has been little, chubby babies since the beginning of time and most of them turned out to be healthy fully-functioning adults. In fact, skinny babies were, until recently, thought to be sickly! I was a very small, skinny baby (not premature) and grew into a tall, medium built lady, my sister, who topped the scale at 10 pounds at birth, grew up to be a tiny, bird-boned young woman – I’m not really buying this science!!
Babies are predisposed to weigh according to their mother’s weight and health levels. For example: a diabetic mother will, by default, have a larger, chubbier baby while a mother who is 6kg underweight will have a tiny baby.
Really… This seems like simply another slur at the overweight!
I don’t know what’s scarier – that this sort of thing is being published in all seriousness, or that there really are parents putting their babies on diets, and pregnant women today are being told by their doctors not to gain any weight for fear they might have a fat baby.
That Paul Campos’ book is excellent, i’ve read it twice!
i don’t care what anyone says, a chubby baby is a healthy baby.