Overweight in infancy: Which pre- and perinatal factors determine overweight persistence or reduction? A birth cohort followed for 11 years

Background: A considerable proportion of children with early-life overweight attain a normal weight. To recognize infants at risk of persistent overweight, we compared earlylife factors of children with a longitudinal pattern of persistent overweight to children with a pattern of overweight in early but not in later childhood. Methods: In 3,550 children participating in a birth cohort that started in 1996/1997 in the Netherlands, body mass index was repeatedly assessed until age 11 and dichotomized into with/without overweight. Latent class growth modeling was used to distinguish trajectories. Our analysis was focused on the comparison of early-life factors in children in a persistent overweight pattern with those in an overweight reduction pattern using multivariable log-binomial regression analyses. Results: Children (n = 133) in the persistent overweight pattern were more likely to have overweight parents [relative risk (RR) mother : 1.85, 95% CI: 1.37-2.49: RR father : 1.75, 95% CI: 1.21- 2.55] than children in the overweight reduction pattern (n = 303). Maternal education, child's gender, ethnicity, birth weight, breast-feeding and maternal smoking during pregnancy did not differ between the trajectories. Conclusion: Health care practitioners should focus on high-weight infants with overweight parents, as these children are less likely to resolve their overweight.

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