Our obsession with infant growth charts may be fuelling childhood obesity

Being big and growing fast in infancy is a strong risk factor for obesity in childhood

Ask any new parent how their baby is going and you will most likely get an update on recent weight gains.

Regular baby weigh-ins are a rite of passage, but many parents look back at this time with a deep sense of failure; when told their child isn’t “gaining enough” they’re left feeling like they didn’t try hard enough with this whole feeding business.

Numbers on the scale have become a defining measure of an infant’s progress. And the message given to parents is that more weight gain is better.

Yet, in the research world, we have known for a decade that