When you hold that beautiful new baby in your arms, you are probably not thinking about childhood obesity. But maybe you should.

Researchers at the Imperial College London have developed an on-line calculator that strongly predicts a baby’s probability of becoming obese during childhood.

Here is how it works. You need this data:

• Child’s birth weight,
• Number of household members
• The mother and father’s body mass indexes (BMI)
• The mother’s occupation
• Mother’s gestational smoking habits

Once you have this information, click on the calculator and plug in the data. Then click on the predicted probability and this will give you a percentage of how likely your baby is to become obese.

Researchers studied 4000 children born in Finland beginning in 1986. They looked at genetics, socio-cultural factors, lifestyle and more. Through statistical analysis, they were able to come up with the most predictive factors of childhood obesity (those listed above). These factors predicted childhood obesity up to 85% of the time.