Big babies born to mothers with diabetes have almost three times the normal risk of growing up overweight or obese, scientists have found.
The same study indicated that breastfeeding in the first five months of life reduced the chances of a child being obese or overweight by around 25%.
Scientists looked at more than 81,000 pre-school children born between January 2005 and August 20013 in Alberta, Canada.
The children were grouped into different categories according to their height and weight, their size at birth, and whether or not their mothers had diabetes while pregnant.
Analysis showed that compared with children born a normal size to diabetes-free mothers, those who were larger than average at birth and whose mothers had diabetes were 2.79 times more likely to be overweight or obese.
Further study showed that being large-for-gestational-age (LGA) at birth alone contributed 39% to the risk of child obesity.
The researchers took into account cases of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The link with childhood obesity was stronger for mothers with the Type 2 disease.
Writing in the journal Diabetologia, the researchers led by Dr Padma Kaul, from the University of Alberta, concluded: “We hope that these findings will reinforce public health campaigns advising women who are planning to get pregnant that, just like smoking, alcohol consumption and other lifestyle choices, their weight prior to getting pregnant, and weight gain and blood sugar control during pregnancy may have a significant impact on the future health of their children.”
