July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Children as young as 8 should take cholesterol-lowering drugs if diet changes alone fail to work, according to new guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics designed to prevent heart disease in adults.

The report today by the academy recommends cholesterol screening for all overweight children, who are especially vulnerable to cardiovascular disease, and drug treatment to reduce so-called bad cholesterol, or low-density lipoproteins. High levels of bad cholesterol and low amounts of good cholesterol elevate the risk of heart disease in adults.

The guidelines are the group's first change in a decade, replacing recommendations to consider prescribing cholesterol drugs in children older than 10 if they fail to lose weight in a year. About 30 percent of U.S. children are overweight, according to a study published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Obese or overweight children may have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure as they grow, the pediatricians' report said.

``The report takes on a new urgency given the current epidemic of childhood obesity with the subsequent increasing risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus hypertension, and cardiovascular disease in older children and adults,'' the academy said in the report. The academy makes treatment recommendations for 60,000 pediatricians.

About 1 percent of children meet the criteria for drug treatment under the new guidelines, said Peter Belamarich, a physician at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York. Belamarich said he'll avoid prescribing drugs for his patients until there is more long-term safety data on cholesterol- lowering medicines in children.

``When you are treating the risks of a disease, you have to make absolutely sure that we're not incurring any harm,'' Belamarich said in a telephone interview.

The pediatricians' report also recommended low-fat dairy products for children from ages 12 months to 2 years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cristina Alesci in New York at calesci@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 7, 2008 17:44 EDT