There is strong and growing clinical and public health interest in identifying growth that is either faster or slower than expected during the first two years of life, given evidence linking early growth trajectories to later obesity and chronic disease risk. There is currently no consensus on how best to define, measure, and longitudinally track rapid infant growth using existing growth standards, nor is there clarity about which specific period of rapid weight gain in infancy is most predictive of later risk.
A measure of rapid infant growth may improve clinical care and research in several ways:
- This measure may serve as an intermediate outcome in evaluations of obesity prevention interventions. For example, a measure could allow earlier evaluation of the potential effectiveness of an intervention on long-term obesity and associated adverse health outcomes.
- The measure may serve as a predictor of longer-term outcomes. For example, improved understanding of genetic and environmental predictors of long-term outcomes can inform strategies for intervention.
- The measure may serve to prioritize interventions targeted at children at high risk for obesity or related adverse health outcomes.
NCCOR Workshop:
In September 2026, the NCCOR Rapid Infant Growth workgroup convened more than 50 experts in rapid infant growth and early-life obesity risk from seven countries for a two-day workshop titled Revisiting Rapid Infant Growth: Assessing Growth in Children Under Age 2. The workshop aimed to a) assess what existing measures of infant growth can and cannot tell us; b) evaluate which metrics are most appropriate for identifying and tracking rapid infant growth; and c) define the critical unanswered questions needed to move toward consistent, evidence-based approaches for clinical practice, research, and population health surveillance.
View the workshop presentations and slides here.
The workgroup engaged two distinguished external experts as workshop co-chairs:
- Carrie B. Daymont, MD, MSCE, FAAP, Penn State College of Medicine
- Charles Thomas Wood, MD, MPH, FAAP, Duke University School of Medicine
