Hello! A good friend of mine took her son in for his well-child check-up the other day, and she called me to fill me in on how everything went. Fortunately, her son is healthy and doing well, but she told me something that the pediatrician said that pretty much amazed her. The doctor told her that the latest recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is that children should start getting their cholesterol checked at the age of 2. My girlfriend said that even the doctor looked sort of amazed at this recommendation.
Her son is older than 2, and the pediatrician didn't push her to get his cholesterol checked right away, but she did throw it out there for my friend to think about.
I have to say this is a new one for me. I'm all for regular tests and keeping as healthy as possible, and when it comes to our kids we definitely need to be vigilant about what they are eating as much as we can and to stay on top of their checkups, shots, etc. But I thought this was pretty young to start doing regular cholesterol checks.
Have any of you heard of this before? If so, have you had your young child tested? If the results were too high, what did you need to do? Do any of you think this is maybe going overboard with testing at such a young age?