Body Mass Index (BMI) has been used for many years with adults to assess overweight and obesity. However, overweight and obesity is not only a problem for adults. An estimated 20-25% of children and adolescents in Australia are overweight and a quarter of this group are obese. Being overweight or obese has a negative impact on both physical and psychosocial health in the short and long term.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in the 'Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents (2003)' has recommended that the 2000 US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) BMI percentile be used to assess adiposity in children and adolescents between the ages of 2-18 years. The 85th percentile and above is indicative of overweight and the 95th percentile and above is indicative of obesity. These percentile cut offs should be used as a reference or a guide.

The first step is to identify children who are overweight or obese, or those that are likely to become that way. It is particularly important a health care professional undertakes this role when 'parents do not often recognise overweight in themselves or their children' (Jeffery et al, 2005).

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Infants are born primed for social and emotional communication. From birth, infants begin the process of coming to know their caretakers and expressing their own feelings. The human infant is born with complex neurological capacities which allow them to engage with the social world as active participants. Infants are social beings and their social, emotional and psychological development, and physical growth, occurs in a social context. This article reviews current understanding of the capacities of infants and discuss the importance of communication for development.

Traditional models of infancy described infants as passive, largely unaware of the environment and minimally interactive. This view has been challenged by developments in infant research and observation which point to the innate capacities of infants for social interaction. Daniel Stern has described infants as having a 'pre-wired knowledge of the world', meaning a neurological ability to engage with and learn about the social environment from birth. Infant development is optimal when the caregiving environment is responsive and sensitive to the infant’s communication.