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Is infant growth changing?

International Journal of Obesity volume 30, pages 1094–1096 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Weight gain between birth and 9 months of 12 903 term Millennium Cohort Study infants was investigated in order to determine differences according to sex, ethnicity and country of birth. The standardised weights and weight gains were also compared with a cohort of mainly white infants born 10 years earlier to determine whether weight gain has changed over the last decade. There were significant differences between ethnic groups, with black infants showing the largest weight gain and Asians the smallest. White boys born in England and Scotland grew relatively faster than girls, but there were no significant gender differences among the other ethnic groups or among infants born in Ireland and Wales. There was very little difference in weight gain between white English Millennium cohort infants and the earlier cohort, suggesting that the current epidemic of childhood obesity starts after 9 months of age.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the Millennium Cohort families who provided the data for this study and Peter Blair for providing the ALSPAC z-scores. We also thank members of the MCS Management Team at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London. The other members of the MCS Child Health Group who contributed to this work are: Suzanne Bartington, Lucy Griffiths, Summer Hawkins and Catherine Law. The MCS is funded by the ESRC and a consortium of government departments led by ONS. Research at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust benefits from R&D funding received from the NHS Executive.

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  1. Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK

    A R Tate, C Dezateux & T J Cole

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  1. A R Tate
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  2. C Dezateux
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  3. T J Cole
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and the Millennium Cohort Study Child Health Group

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Correspondence to A R Tate.

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Tate, A., Dezateux, C., Cole, T. et al. Is infant growth changing?. Int J Obes 30, 1094–1096 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803310

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