Baby fat may be cute, but chubby kids could be in imminent health jeopardy. This cautionary advice is most certainly extended to the parents of children with special needs. This article examines the association of childhood obesity with the development of diabetes and discusses the prevalence of obesity among individuals with intellectual disabilities. It is estimated that more than 229,000 American children have diabetes; of those children, one-third are obese. In 2005, a total of almost 21 million residents in the United States were reported to have diabetes. In the national population, over 80% of people with diabetes are overweight or obese. Additionally, there are reports that suggest that the prevalence of autism may be greater in children with type 1 diabetes than the percentage in the general population, possibly associated with a common autoimmune effect. Diabetes is more common in children with Down syndrome than among their peers in the general population. In some reports about Down Syndrome, almost all females were overweight or obese. There is no single, sure-fire remedy to ensure weight control, except maybe to remember that the conditioning and habits (eating and otherwise) that we learn in our early years can have significant influence in adult years.