Childhood obesity continues to grow among American kids

EL PASO, Texas - A new report published in the journal "Pediatrics" shows an overall increase in childhood obesity from kids in Kindergarten to 5th grade.

This study tracked kids from 1998 to 2004 and kids from 2010 to 2016.

The study found that about 16.2% of kids who finished 5th grade in 2016 were considered obese, as opposed to 15.5% of the kids who finished 5th grade in 2004.

Some factors that experts say can lead to childhood obesity include a lack of access to healthy food and not enough exercise.

Also the study said that children of color were more likely to be obese.

Medical Director of the Del Sol Bariatric Center, Dr. Jorge Acosta, said that parents should enforce healthy habits as early as they possibly can.

"Really, we have to start since babies are born almost," said Acosta, "Because once you set that precedent, once you have a kid that's obese, it's gonna be really hard to break that mold."

The CDC defines childhood obesity as kids who are at or above the 95th percentile of a Body Mass Index (BMI) for kids that share the same age and sex.