ESPE Abstracts

Background: Obese children come from families where either one or both parents are obese, suggesting obesity is the result of exposure to detrimental environment.

Objective and hypotheses: We propose that inherited insulin resistance is the core which promotes development of obesity and that allergic airway obstruction stalls development of obesity, while peptic gastritis promotes over-eating by confounding portion control.

Method: We reviewed 384 new patient records with a diagnosis of abnormal weight gain (ICD-9 783.1) and conducted descriptive statistical analysis.

Results: Of 384 obese patients, 79.1% had at least one obese parent, and 31.5% had two obese parents. More importantly, 51.1% of obese patients with full siblings had one full sibling who was not obese. Although 16% of the patients were described by their parents as obese in infancy, 53.9%, became obese between ages 5 and 10 years, but were previously lean. 62% suffered with allergic diatheses, and 25.5% had peptic symptoms.

Conclusion: Obese children are born insulin resistant and gain body fat when they finally eat sufficiently.