Last month, a study found overweight preschoolers have signs of heart disease. Now new research shows how prevalent obesity is in kids that young – it finds nearly one in five American four-year-olds is obese. That’s more than half a million four-year-olds. The rate is even higher among American Indian children – nearly a third of them are obese. Researchers say they were surprised to see differences by race at such a young age.
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What a scary statistic! And a surprising one to me. I know how active my kids are as preschoolers, and I can’t imagine them eating enough or being able to keep them still enough for them to become obese. Yikes!
Cathy – scary and sad, isn’t it? Glad you’re back!
I’d like to find a way to re-frame this, but I can’t. I’ve seen plenty of chubby kids, but 20% is beyond frightening. I know it’s a tide that can’t be turned, but I still don’t like seeing all the drowning
I’m actually speechless about this. This has been a trend for sometime now, and just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does.
- Dave
Scary! I remember when I was little my parents couldn’t get us to sit down for five minutes-we were always outside playing, running around, or riding our bikes…but I see this everyday. Just go to the grocery store or Target and it is amazing how many overweight little kids I see.
So sad.
I know, Katie – we were always outside doing something active, too. Always. So sad.
This is just terrible news. I wonder how many are obese by the end of elementary school. 3 out of 5? That may not be the stat yet, but it’s certainly where we are headed.
Megan – I know – why can’t this stop???