Apr 3 : It’s may not be only McDonald’s that’s responsible for your overweight kid, for a new study has found that women who gain excessive or even appropriate weight during pregnancy have babies who become overweight in early childhood.

The study was conducted by researchers at the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. The lead author of the research was Emily Oken, MD, MPH, instructor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention.

As part of the study, to find whether pregnancy weight gain within or above the recommended range, increased the risk of a child being overweight at age 3 years, researchers examined data from 1,044 mother-child pairs in Project Viva, which deals with a prospective study of pregnant women and their children, based at the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention’s Obesity Prevention Program, and calculated the total gestational weight gain as the difference between the last weight recorded before delivery and self-reported pre-pregnancy weight.

In the study, 51 percent of women gained excessive weight, 35 percent gained adequate weight, and 14 percent gained inadequate weight, according to the IOM guidelines.

Researchers found that women with adequate or excessive gain were approximately four times more likely than those with inadequate gain to have an overweight child, as measured at age 3. The authors defined overweight as a BMI greater than the 95th percentile for the child’s age and sex.

“Maternal weight gain during pregnancy is an important determinant of birth outcomes. These findings suggest that pregnancy weight gain can influence child health even after birth and may cause the obstetric community to rethink current guidelines,” Emily Oken said.

The study also found that children of mothers who gained more weight also had somewhat higher systolic blood pressure, a cardiovascular risk factor related to weight even in young children.

“Our study shows that excessive weight gain during pregnancy was directly associated with having an overweight child. Just like adults, children who are overweight are at higher risk for a number of health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol,” Oken added.

Gestational weight gain may be linked to child overweight through several potential pathways. Mothers who gain weight readily because of genetic, dietary, or other behavioural factors may have children who are more likely to gain weight. Also, the amount of weight gained during pregnancy may alter the intrauterine environment, not only influencing foetal growth but also possibly resulting in persistent programming of child weight.

“Because childhood obesity is increasing in prevalence and effective treatment remains elusive, preventing childhood obesity remains critical. The IOM may need to re-evaluate its recommendations for gestational weight gain, considering not only birth outcomes but also risk of obesity for both mother and child. While our study signals the potential need to adjust guidelines, further studies will need to occur to determine just what the appropriate weights should be,” Oken said.

“It has been 17 years since the IOM came out with its last set of recommendations, before the obesity epidemic hit with full force. Now, women are coming into pregnancy at higher weights and likely gaining excessively more than they used to. We need to find out how to counter this trend–but not go too far back in the other direction when women were gaining too little weight,” Matthew Gillman, MD, associate professor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, and senior author of the study said.

The findings of the study were published in the April issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. (ANI)