RECOMENDACIONES DURANTE LOS PRIMEROS 1.000 DÍAS PARA PREVENIR LA OBESIDAD INFANTIL. CONSEJOS A LAS FAMILIAS

Childhood obesity is a disease with an increasing prevalence associated with the development of other pathologies. We know that the most effective measures to prevent it are prevention. The first 1000 days of life, from conception to two years of age, is a critical period for the development of childhood obesity. This is because it is a period of maximum plasticity in initial programming, in which environmental factors (programming) can have a significant influence on future health. In addition to these, there are other factors, which we can call "educable", related to the habits of families, which are beginning to be acquired in these very early stages of development and which have also been associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity. Observation of the cumulative effect of different programming factors and educable factors on the risk of developing childhood obesity suggests that, to achieve maximum effectiveness in primary prevention, interventions should be designed to act on as many of them as possible. Depending on when these metabolic programming factors related to childhood obesity appear, we can classify them as prenatal and postnatal. This article offers a series of recommendations for the best management of these initial programming factors at different stages, with the aim of helping children develop an adequate initial program capable of preventing diseases such as obesity.