Severe Obesity Rises Among Kids With ‘Significant Implications’ for Future Health: Study

Girls saw higher severe obesity than boys, with the prevalence rising with age among all children.

Overweight twins are weighed in a nutritionist office in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia, on Sept. 22, 2011. Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images

Rates of severe obesity among children aged 2 to 4 in the United States rose between 2016 and 2020, reversing an earlier declining trend, according to a new study.

The study, published in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) journal on Dec. 18, examined the prevalence of severe obesity among 16.6 million low-income children aged 2 to 4 who were enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) between 2010 and 2020.