At 6, Caitlin Brown(*) is big for her age, loves sweets, and has trouble buttoning her size-eight clothing–all of which worry her mother, Marci. “I was such a skinny kid at her age, and I’m terrified that she’s inherited my husband’s weight problem,” says the 40-year-old mother of two from Montclair, NJ. “I don’t want her to grow up fat.” We’re a nation obsessed with weight–our own and our children’s. It’s understandable: More than twice as many children are overweight today than were 25 years ago, some 13 percent of girls and 15 percent of boys, ages 6 to 11, according to a 1997 government study of more than 7,000 children. What’s more, overweight children are twice as likely to become overweight adults as those who
