Utilizing Infant Growth to Predict Obesity Status at 5 Years.

AIM: This study determines if an early life growth pattern in healthy infants can predict obesity at age 5. METHODS: Randomly selected from all healthy children born from 1997 to 2001 in a Midwestern US Health Maintenance Organization; growth patterns from birth to 5 years were described for children who were categorised by obesity classification at 5 years into normal weight (n = 61), overweight (n = 47), obese (n = 41) and morbidly obese (n = 72) cohorts using World Health Organization body mass index (BMI) criteria. A retrospective longitudinal analysis based on weighted least squares was performed on BMI by age (1 week; 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 months; and 2, 3, 4 and 5 years). Graphs of the longitudinal repeated measures analysis of variance of means allowed identification of the earliest significant divergence of a cohort's average BMI pattern from other cohorts' patterns. RESULTS: Distinctions in growth patterns and BMIs were evident before 1-year post-birth. Children who w