Mothers who have their pre-pregnancy BMI too high and have reported an excessive weight gain during pregnancy, affect the child’s weight, both at birth and later in life, the scienceinpoland.pl website has reported.
In their article in the journal 'Children”, scientists from the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, northwestern Poland, wrote that the pre-pregnancy maternal BMI gestational weight gain correlate with birth weight and weight in neonatal period, and may affect the child's weight and health in later life.
However, the above-mentioned factors do not affect the breastfeeding duration. The percentage of 6-month breastfeeding women was similar among underweight, overweight and obese mothers before pregnancy, the study reads.
The Polish team claim their research to be “the first prospective study evaluating the relationship between the body weight of healthy children from birth to 2 years of age, pBMI and maternal gestational weight gain in the Polish population.”
“This early period of life, consisting of the first 24 months of life, is very interesting from the preventive medicine point of view, as even small changes, such as diet and lifestyle modifications could help prevent the negative consequences of obesity and metabolic disorders,” the researchers were quoted as saying by scienceinpoland.pl.
“Poland is one of the countries where the proportion of obese and overweight children is growing very rapidly,” the researchers also noted in their study. Thus, they call for action for preconception obesity prevention and lifestyle modification for children of obese women in Poland.
Special attention should be paid to a proper diet and physical activity, together with behavioural and social support strategies, according to scienceinpoland.pl.
(mo)
Source: scienceinpoland.pl