Bichteler A, et al. - Using eleven waves of data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to identify patterns of BMI changes across childhood (ages 24 months to 13 years) as well as to evaluate whether demographic characteristics, birth weight, and percent infant weight gain from birth to 15 months predicted BMI patterns. During middle childhood, children in the high-rising and low-to-high BMI patterns had the highest BMI of all trajectory groups. Findings revealed that infant weight gain and birth weight were stronger predictors of trajectory membership than gender or race/ethnicity. It was noted that African American children had lower birth weight, faster infant weight increase, and higher odds of being in one of the rising trajectories. Researchers suggested that clinicians should monitor weight gain during infancy independent of birth weight.