A multidisciplinary team at UNC Greensboro is combatting childhood obesity, which affects 14.7 million children and adolescents across the nation, according to the CDC. “Once a child becomes overweight or obese, it’s very difficult to reverse that trajectory,” says Jefferson-Pilot Excellence Professor Esther Leerkes. “There’s more attention now on what you can do early in life to prevent weight problems.”
Dr. Leerkes (left in photo) is principal investigator on the $3 million NIH-funded “iGrowUP” study, which is tracking children from ages 3 through 5 – a time in their lives when they begin developing independent self-regulatory behaviors.
It’s an expansion of UNCG’s groundbreaking $2.8 million iGrow – Infant Growth and Development – study, which followed approximately 300 children from the womb to age 2, along with their families. It examined the biological, psychological, and social factors that could raise obesity risk from infancy through toddlerhood. Now, Dr. Lenka Shriver, Dr. Laurie Wideman, and Dr. Jessica Dollar join her in following many of the same children from the original study, during the critical time when they start learning how to control their own behavior. The researchers are focused on how they can aid families.