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Another study has addressed the health risks of children born to obese mothers.

According to a new article published in the journal Nursing for Women's Health (and reported by ScienceDaily), obesity in pregnant women is associated with pregnancy complications, birth defects, and a greater risk of childhood and adult obesity rates for the infants born to these mothers.

• Merrie Rebecca Walters, RN and Julie Smith Taylor, PhD, RNC, WHNP-BC, the article's authors, reviewed data to determine the potential consequences of maternal obesity.
  
• The researchers found that obese women are more likely to have an infant with a neural tube defect, a heart defect, or multiple problems, than women who are within the normal weight range.
  
• In addition, obese women are more likely that normal-weight women to experience pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia, labor induction, cesarean delivery, and postpartum hemorrhage.

The researchers also discovered that mothers' obesity may hold long-term implications for infants.

• Obesity among pregnant women is linked to childhood obesity in infants.
  
• A mother's obesity during pregnancy more than doubles the risk that the child will be obese at two to four years of age.
  
• These children are also at greater risk for obesity in adolescence and adulthood.
  

"Assisting women of childbearing age to achieve and maintain a healthful weight prior to conception will potentially minimize health risks to both mothers and infants," the authors wrote. "Health care providers must recognize the association between maternal obesity and childhood obesity and work to break the cycle of obesity before it becomes the leading cause of mortality in the United States."

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, mothers, pregnancy

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A study from Duke University indicates that obesity in mothers can cause "programming" that predisposes their children to inflammation related diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.

The experiments were performed on laboratory rats, and found that offspring born to obese mothers could show a predisposition to such diseases even if the children were of normal weight.

A Feb. 10 LiveScience article provided the following information about the Duke research:

[Study co-author Staci D.] Bilbo and colleagues placed rats on one of three diets (low-fat, high-saturated fat, and high-trans fat) four weeks prior to mating and throughout pregnancy and lactation. The high-fat diets rendered the mice clinically obese.

The newborn pups' brains were analyzed. Offspring born to mothers on the high-fat diets showed increased immune cell activation and release of injurious substances known as cytokines, all right after birth. The changes stuck even until the newborns became adults, and even after they were put on low-fat diets.

"This hyper-response to inflammation remained dramatically increased compared to rats born to normal-weight mothers," the researchers write.

The Duke study was published in the journal of The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, mothers, pregnancy

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Breastfeeding an infant for more than six months may reduce the child's risk of being overweight five years later.

According to study that was conducted at the University of Bristol (United Kingdom), bottle-fed infants have a higher risk for becoming obese or overweight as adults.

This study, which involved a longitudinal analysis of the diets of 880 babies, appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

Labels: mothers, babies, breastfed

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A child's obesity may begin when his mother is pregnant, according to new research from Technical University in Munich, Germany.

The research team found that mothers who develop diabetes during pregnancy had a greater chance of having children who are overweight by age 11 years old. Diabetes is more common among overweight people.

Previous studies have shown that people who are overweight as children and teenagers have an 80 percent chance of being overweight in adulthood.
 

Labels: parenting, mothers, pregnancy

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In a Nov. 26 article on the website of Arizona news station ABC15, registered nurse and lactation consultant Doreen L. Connor reported that infants who are breastfed by their mothers are less likely to become overweight than are non-breastfed youth:

When we discuss the topic of childhood obesity, we need to start at the beginning -- when they are still infants.

According to a study published on the Centers for Disease Control website, each month a baby is breastfed, the odds of being overweight goes down by 4 percent, up to nine months. The results showed a 30 percent decrease overall in the chances the baby will be overweight, compared to a baby who is never breastfed.

Labels: prevention, mothers, infant

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