Babies whose body fat was measured within days of birth had more body fat--an extra 3.6 ounces on average--if their mothers gained excessive weight in pregnancy, than babies whose mothers remained within the recommended guidelines in terms of weight gain during pregnancy.
The study, led by Dr. Jami Josefson, who is a pediatric endocrinologist working at Children’s Memorial Hospital and also teaches at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, included 56 women, none of whom had mitigating circumstances like gestational diabetes.
The study found that women who were obese pre-pregnancy were far more likely to gain too much weight (about 70 percent) in pregnancy than their slimmer counter parts (less than half that percentage).
Researchers now want to see if childhood obesity can be connected with the findings in this study so they will not draw a complete conclusion as to any link for now. Research will continue.
This new study has not been published in a medical journal as yet but was introduced in early June, 2011 during The Endocrine’s Society’s yearly meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.
For more information, click here: http://www.endo-society.org/
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Did you gain excessive weight in pregnancy? Was/is your baby/child heavier than average now?
Edited by Alison Stanton