Extra weight in early childhood foretells later disease risk

Baby fat can be a harbinger of serious disease later on. Being overweight as a young child is a strong predictor of diabetes and heart disease risk in early adulthood, a new Dutch study finds.

Previous research has linked being overweight in childhood with a higher risk of these chronic diseases in adulthood, but the new study is the first to identify the ages between 2 and 6 years as the most important in predicting later risk of metabolic syndrome, says the study’s lead author, physician Marlou de Kroon of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.