Childhood Obesity
Obesity and the First Week of Life
How a baby eats during the first week of life may set lifelong eating patterns that could lead to obesity, according to a fascinating study from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, published in t…
Family Mealtime: All for One and One for All
When I was a child and my family was gathered together for a meal, my father would sometimes look each of us in the eye and say, "All for one, and one for all." We eagerly repeated this to each other,…
An Obesity Epidemic
Dr. Greene's take on the obesity epidemic... You've probably already heard that we are raising the most overweight, out-of-shape generation of children in history. In October 2004, the Centers for Dis…
Obese in Preschool
More than 10 percent of American kids between the ages of 2 and 5 are already overweight or obese, according to the January 2005 annual statistics report of the American Heart Association. This number…
Fast-Food Fallout
Does stopping by a fast food restaurant a few times a week with your kids really make a difference in their health? A major long-term study has found a strong association between eating fast food more…
Physical Activity at Preschool
Healthy kids 3 to 5 years old thrive best with at least 120 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Most people think of preschoolers as high-activity kids, but the current obe…
Chubby Average Predicts Disaster
When my wife and I were born, American teenage girls, aged 12 to 17, weighed an average of 118 pounds. Some weighed more and some weighed less. Today, the average has swollen to 130 pounds. And teenag…
Childhood Obesity and Cancer
Dr. Greene's take on childhood obesity and cancer... The heavier kids are during the toddler, preschool, and school years, the greatest the chance they have of developing cancer as young adults, accor…
The Downward Spiral of Obesity
High blood pressure, high blood glucose, high triglycerides, low HDL, and/or increased waist size are all important heart disease risk factors, typically associated with middle age. Get ready for your…
Blood Pressure in Children
What's your three-year-old's blood pressure? August 2004 guidelines from The National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group on Children recommend that blood pressure screening begin at a…
Frogs, Food Ads, and Fat Kids
When I was in junior high school, one of my science teachers told me that if a frog is placed in water that is gradually heated, the frog wouldn't notice the danger until it was already being harmed. …
Taming the TV
How you handle television viewing now may make a measurable difference in how your child will look when she is in her mid-twenties. Kids who watch more than two hours a day between the ages of 5 and 1…
Breastfeeding and Protection from Obesity
A huge study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed a total of 177,304 low-income children at public health clinics from birth to age 5. Breastfeeding for more than 6 months was as…
Breakfast and Bad Teeth
Kids who skip breakfast have a more than 250 percent increased risk for developing tooth decay, according to a study of more than 4,000 children aged 2 through 5 years published in the January 2004 Jo…
More than 30% of Children
On any given day, more than 30 percent of children in the U.S. will eat fast food, according to a Harvard study in the January 2004 Pediatrics. Is there a difference in health between kids who eat fas…
Soft Drinks in Schools
Dr. Greene's take on soft drinks in schools... The American Academy of Pediatrics started 2004 with a policy statement urging that soft drinks be eliminated from schools as an important step in turnin…
Kids’ Meals
The U.S. Surgeon General addressed us yesterday at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2003 annual meeting. He spoke about the obesity epidemic that is crippling our children and killing 300,000 people…
Dieting Causes Kids to Gain Weight?
The more often that children dieted, the more likely they were to become more overweight over the next three years, according to a study of 14,972 children in the October 2003 Pediatrics. Binge eating…
A Weight and Fitness Report Card
Elementary school children in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently came home with a different kind of report card from school, informing parents of their child's body mass index (BMI) and what it means a…
Growth Curves
It's time for a change! Plotting your child's height and weight on a growth curve is a familiar feature of well-child-checks at your pediatrician's office. The most useful growth chart for predicting …