Periods of risk in childhood for the development of adult obesity--what do we need to learn?

The prenatal period, the period of adiposity rebound and adolescence appear to represent critical periods for the development of obesity that persists into adulthood. Nonetheless, relatively little is known about the extent to which incident obesity at each of these intervals contributes to the prevalence of adult obesity. Similarly, little is known about the mechanisms that operate at each of these critical periods to entrain adult obesity.