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Postnatal weight and height growth velocities at different ages between birth and 5 y and body composition in adolescent boys and girls^1,2,3

¹ From Inserm, Unit 780, Villejuif, France (JB, BH, JM, PD, and M-AC); the University of Paris Sud, Faculty of Medicine, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France (JB, BH, PD, and M-AC); and the University of Paris Descartes, Paris, France (JM)

Background: Rapid weight gain in the first years of life is associated with adult obesity. Whether there are critical windows for this long-term effect is unclear.

Objective: The objective was to study anthropometric measures in adolescence by sex according to weight and height growth velocities at different ages between birth and 5 y.

Design: Anthropometric measures, including fat and fat-free mass by bipodal impedancemetry, were measured in 468 adolescents aged 8–17 y. We retrospectively collected early infancy data and individually estimated weight and height growth velocities in 69.4% of them using a mathematical model. Associations between birth variables, growth velocities, and anthropometric measures in adolescence were studied.

Results: Weight growth velocity at 3 mo was associated with overweight (odds ratio for a 1-SD increase: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.04, 2.22), fat mass, and waist circumference in adolescence in both sexes and with fat-free mass in boys (r = 0.29, P < 0.001) but not in girls (r = –0.01, NS). Weight growth velocities after 2 y were associated with all anthropometric measures in adolescence, in both sexes. Between 6 mo and 2 y, weight growth velocities were significantly associated only with adolescent height in boys; in girls, associations with fat mass in adolescence were weaker.

Conclusion: Our results support the hypothesis of 2 critical windows in early childhood associated with the later risk of obesity: up to 6 mo and from 2 y onward. The study of the determinants of growth during these 2 periods is of major importance for the prevention of obesity in adolescence.

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