Warning over obese toddlers’ heart damage

Formula milk and lack of exercise blamed as experts say scientists’ findings should cause alarm in UK

Obese toddlers are showing early signs of heart damage caused by being overweight, a study has found. A study of more than 400 children found changes in the structure of the heart in obese infants – including those below the age of one. British experts said “alarm bells should be ringing”.

TODDLERS are showing early signs of heart damage caused by being overweight, a study has found.

The study of more than 400 children found changes in the structure of the heart in obese infants – including those below the age of one.

British experts said “alarm bells should be ringing” after scientists found obese children had 30 per cent thicker heart muscle compared to those of a healthy weight.

Suffering from an abnormally enlarged organ is an early marker of heart disease. Nearly all of the overweight babies were bottle-fed, leading experts to believe that too much formula milk may be fuelling soaring obesity rates.

The scans revealed fat children had enlargement and thickening in the left part of the heart, which is the key pumping chamber.

Scientists said the early damage could see babies doomed to early heart failure caused by poor diet and a lack of exercise.

The findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Barcelona, prompted calls for action to tackle spiralling rates of global obesity. In Britain, more than one third of children are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school. The rate in adults is almost two thirds.

The research involved 455 children who were seen in cardiology clinics in Romania. The country has the lowest obesity rates in the EU, with just 9.4 per cent of adults classed as obese, compared with 24.8 per cent in England.

British experts said the findings should cause alarm in the UK, given its far worse record, and trigger urgent action to tackle obesity among the young. Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: “When obesity exacerbates their heart health in toddlerhood, alarms bells should be ringing.”

He said the failure to properly track the weight of children before they started school meant Britain was allowing problems to build up.

“We don’t know what the full extent might be since we have no idea of how many obese pre-schoolers we have here,” he said. “These Romanian children may well die before their parents as well as suffering lifelong illness: ours will be no different,” he added.

Dr Delia Mercea, lead researcher from Constantin Opriş hospital in Baia Mare, Romania, said doctors should intervene to warn parents that their children’s diets could prove lethal.

“The end stage is heart failure,” she warned.

The study included 54 babies below a year old and 125 toddlers. All had been bottle-fed.

Britain has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world, with just one in three babies breastfed until six months, in line with NHS advice.