Sadananthan SA, et al. - In a South Asian longitudinal birth cohort, researchers examined the independent relationships between age-specific annual weight gain from birth to age 4 years and fat deposition in metabolically distinct compartments at age 4.5 years. For this investigation, they performed volumetric abdominal magnetic resonance imaging with comprehensive segmentation of deep and superficial subcutaneous adipose tissue and visceral adipose tissues (VAT) in 316 children (aged 4.5 years). There were no significant sex or ethnic differences in VAT. In the second year of life, Indian ethnicity and female sex predisposed children to gain more fat in the VAT depot with increasing relative conditional weight gain. Thus, the age of 1 to 2 years may be a critical window for interventions to reduce the accumulation of visceral fat.