Be on the lookout for chubby bubbies

They may look adorable, but chubby bubbies are already on the path to a risky cardiac profile in adolescence and need early intervention, Australian research suggests.

After following more than 400 children from birth, University of Sydney researchers report that the earlier the weight gain starts in childhood, the worse the cardiometabolic risk at age 14.

The researchers analysed data from the Childhood Asthma Prevention Study, using height and weight measures from birth to 14 to divide the participants into three BMI trajectories.

A detailed cardiometabolic risk analysis was conducted for 190 participants.

Children whose elevated BMI trajectory started in the first few years of life had more central adiposity and more atherogenic lipoproteins than those whose BMI started rising between two and five years, according to the report in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Compared with children