A new study has suggested that in order to prevent obesity later in life it is important that prevention efforts start as early as from age 2. According to researches obesity progression starts from age 2 and if not controlled by the age 8 the child already enters into the overweight category, making treatment extremely difficult.

The modern lifestyle, junk food, less sleep and stress have helped obesity reach new highs, with more and more people getting diagnosed with this dangerous condition. It is estimated that about 9 million children in America are obese or overweight.

Obesity leads to high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cardiovascular complications. For the study data of 111 overweight children were collected from a suburban pediatric clinic and then analyzed. The suburban pediatric clinic measures and maintains the data such as height and weight of children during routine visits.

According to John W. Harrington, M.D., a pediatrician at Virginia’s Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters and Co-author of the study, a prevention effort is needed and the doctors should review the diet of children during visits.

The children were classified overweight if the body mass index was more than 85% of general population. The results reveled that the obesity progression in children had started early with .08 excess body mass index per month. By the time the children reached the age of 3 about 50% were overweight and by the age 5, 90% children were overweight.