Children from The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine; n = 1,506) Study were genotyped at 17 genetic loci shown to be associated with childhood obesity (FTO, MC4R, TMEM18, GNPDA2, KCTD15, NEGR1, BDNF, ETV5, SEC16B, LYPLAL1, TFAP2B, MTCH2, BCDIN3D, NRXN3, SH2B1, MRSA) and an obesity-risk-allele-score was calculated as the total number of ‘risk alleles’ possessed by each individual. This evidence concerns the gene FTO and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.