Rapid infant weight gain and early childhood obesity in low-income Latinos and non-Latinos.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the growth of infants and toddlers in a population that is both under-represented in the literature and at high risk for childhood obesity. DESIGN: Weight and height measurements were extracted from all visits for a sample of 0-4-year-old, low-income, Latino and non-Latino patients of an urban, academic general paediatric practice. Early growth was characterized as change in weight-for-length Z-score (WLZ) from birth to 3 years. The outcome of interest was BMI Z-score (BMIZ) at age 3 years. Mixed-effects models and multivariate linear regression were used to analyse the association between infant growth and early childhood obesity. SETTING: Baltimore, MD, USA. SUBJECTS: Latino (n 210) and non-Latino (n 253) children, born in 2003-2004. RESULTS: An increase in WLZ from birth to 2 years was observed for this cohort as well as a high incidence of overweight and obesity. WLZ at birth and change in WLZ from birth to 2 years were both significantly and positively associated with increases in BMIZ at 3 years of age. The effect of the change in WLZ was twofold higher than the effect of WLZ at birth. CONCLUSIONS: An increase in WLZ during the first 2 years of life increased the risk of early childhood obesity. Latino children had a higher incidence of early childhood obesity than non-Latino children in this low-income sample.

Intergenerational Social Networks and Health Behaviors Among Children Living in Public Housing.

OBJECTIVES: In a survey of families living in public housing, we investigated whether caretakers' social networks are linked with children's health status. METHODS: In 2011, 209 children and their caretakers living in public housing in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland, were surveyed regarding their health and social networks. We used logistic regression models to examine the associations between the perceived health composition of caretaker social networks and corresponding child health characteristics (e.g., exercise, diet). RESULTS: With each 10% increase in the proportion of the caretaker's social network that exercised regularly, the child's odds of exercising increased by 34% (adjusted odds ratio = 1.34; 95% confidence interval = 1.07, 1.69) after the caretaker's own exercise behavior and the composition of the child's peer network had been taken into account. Although children's overweight or obese status was associated with caretakers' social networks, the results were no longer significant after adjustment for caretakers' own weight status. CONCLUSIONS: We found that caretaker social networks are independently associated with certain aspects of child health, suggesting the importance of the broader social environment for low-income children's health.