About 14.7 million children and adolescents in the US live with obesity, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This has led the American Academy of Pediatrics to update its recommendations for the treatment of this condition, which is also suffered by some 106 million adults in Latin America and the Caribbean.
"The most worrying myth is that children who are overweight or obese will normalize their weight by the time they enter adolescence or young adulthood," said Dr. Alejandro Díaz, a pediatric endocrinologist at Nicklaus Children's Hospital.