These are among the recommendations in a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the first comprehensive studies analyzing what should be done to help prevent obesity in children up to five years of age.
In recent years there has been much emphasis on fighting overweight in school-age kids, but weight problems often begin in younger children, the report says.
About 20% of kids are overweight or obese before they go to school, with higher rates among low-income children and African-American and Hispanic children, the report notes. Government data shows a third of school-age children are overweight or obese.
Many young children don't grow out of their baby fat, and that extra weight increases their risk of obesity later in life, says Leann Birch,chair of the IOM committee that prepared the report and director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at the Pennsylvania State University.
