Key Takeaways

Early childhood obesity programs that focus on parents don’t work, a new evidence review findsThe programs had no impact on children’s weight at age 2The programs focus on building parents’ skills and knowledge of nutrition, exercise and sleep

THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Programs that recruit parents to help fight early childhood obesity aren’t doing much good at all, a new evidence review says.

There’s no evidence that these programs have any impact on the body mass index (BMI) of toddlers, researchers reported in The Lancet . BMI is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.

In short, it’s not fair to ask new parents – scrambling and stressed as they are — to counter the societal and cultural forces that increase kids’ risk of excess weight,

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