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Obesity rates dropping among Mass. infants, toddlers

Harvard Pilgrim study makes ‘surprising’ find

By Deborah Kotz

 |  Globe Staff  

  April 23, 2012

After a three-decade tripling in childhood obesity rates, the trend has leveled off and, for the first time, appears to be on a substantial decline - at least among Massachusetts infants and preschoolers. That’s according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, which found that the percentage of obese girls under age 6 dropped from 9 percent to slightly more than 6 percent from 2004 to 2008; the percentage of obese boys under age 6 fell from nearly 11 percent to just under 9 percent during the same time period.

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