If there aren't already enough reasons to watch what your child eats, it seems that there may be another good reason - your child's intelligence. A recent study published in the Journal of Pediatrics suggests that there is a link between early onset morbid obesity and lower IQ scores as well as cognitive delays.

Young age morbid obesity was defined for the purpose of the study as those weighing at least 150% of ideal body weight before the age of 4.

Study authors from the University of Florida suggest that metabolic disturbances caused by obesity may damage the growing brain. When morbidly obese children were compared with normal-weight siblings, IQ scores were an average of twenty-eight points lower. More study is needed to determine whether this obesity complication is reversible.