Gewicht
aanstaande moeder belangrijk voor gewicht kind.*
Het
gewicht van de moeder een paar maanden voordat ze zwanger raakt blijkt in
relatie te staan tot het gewicht van de baby. Bij een duidelijk overgewicht van
de aanstaande moeder heeft de baby ruim drie keer meer kans om, zelfs blijvend,
overgewicht te hebben blijkt uit een onderzoek onder ruim 3.000 kinderen. De
kinderen werden daarvoor om de twee jaar gemeten. Bij de laatste meting bij de
leeftijd van 7 jaar bleek:
Het
aantal kinderen met overgewicht daalden tijdens de metingen, 2 van de 3 kinderen
die overgewicht hadden hadden dit ook tijdens een voorgaande meting en 3 van de
4 kinderen die nu een normaal gewicht hadden hadden dit tijdens alle metingen.
Verdere conclusies waren dat roken tijdens de zwangerschap ook overgewicht kan
bevorderen. Borstvoeding daarentegen gaf 5% minder kans op overgewicht.
Child's
Weight Influenced By Mother Even Before She Got Pregnant
Results of the study, which included
more than 3,000 children, suggest that a child is far more likely to be
overweight at a very young age - at 2 or 3 years old - if his mother was
overweight or obese before she became pregnant. A child is also at greater risk
of becoming overweight if he is born to a black or Hispanic mother, or to a
mother who smoked during her pregnancy.
And there's a good chance that an overweight child will stay overweight for the
rest of his or her life.
"Weight persists with time, so a child who is overweight by her second
birthday is more likely to be overweight at a later age," said Pamela
Salsberry, the study's lead author and an associate professor of nursing at Ohio
State University. "Prevention of childhood obesity needs to begin before a
woman ever gets pregnant."
Salsberry conducted the study with Patricia Reagan, a professor of economics at
Ohio State. Their study appears in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The researchers analyzed the data for 3,022 children included in the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth's (NLSY) Child-Mother file. The NLSY collected
height and weight information at multiple points in time. In this study,
children were weighed when they were roughly ages 3, 5 and 7. The survey also
gathered information on each child's race and ethnicity, and asked each mother
to recall her pre-pregnancy weight, if she had smoked while pregnant and if she
had breast-fed her child.
Children were considered overweight if their body mass index (BMI) was greater
than or equal to the 95th percentile for their age and gender. BMI is a
measurement that relates weight to height. A child in the 95th percentile for
his weight is heavier than 95 percent of the children his age.
A mother's weight within a month or two before she became pregnant had the
greatest impact on a child's weight at all three weight measurement points.
If a woman was overweight before she became pregnant, her child was as much as
three times more likely to be overweight by age 7 compared to a child whose
mother was not overweight or obese.
There was a significant relationship between a mother's weight prior to
pregnancy and her child's weight. The risk that a child would be overweight at a
young age increased with the degree of the mother's obesity.
At each weight measurement point, about 4 to 6 percent more black and Hispanic
children were overweight than white children. However, the percentage of all
children who were overweight, regardless of race or ethnicity, decreased with
age.
"Some children lose extra body weight and become leaner as they grow,"
Salsberry said.
Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy were more likely to be heavy at
all three weight measurement points.
"Obviously smoking during pregnancy causes a host of serious problems, but
this finding adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests that smoking
during pregnancy may be a key risk factor that increases a child's chances of
being overweight," Salsberry said.
Breast feeding had a slight effect on weight at each measurement: As much as 5
percent fewer children who were breast-fed were also overweight, compared to
bottle-fed babies.
The researchers also looked at other factors that may affect a child's weight,
such as the age of the mother when she gave birth, the child's gender and
whether or not the mother was married. None of these factors had the same degree
of effect on childhood weight as a mother's weight prior to pregnancy, race,
ethnicity or smoking.
Two out of three children who were overweight at their final weighing were also
overweight during at least one prior weighing.
Three out of four children who were at a normal weight at the final weighing had
always been at a normal weight.
"A child's weight at 3 years is a good prediction of what his weight will
be at age 5, and so on," Salsberry said. "Weight states tend to
persist over time.
"Obesity continues to rise in adults," she said. "And that risk
has increased in children, too. Interventions should begin immediately for
children who are already overweight at these young ages."
In related work, Salsberry has also looked at the weights of teenagers and young
adults.
"We often see overweight 12- and 13-year-olds whose parents are also
overweight or obese ," she said. "It's the same thing with young
adults around 20 and 21. There is evidence suggesting that the development of
obesity in these age groups may be related to dietary habits very early in life."
This study was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health's
National Institute of Nursing Research.
Written by Holly Wagner
Pamela Salsberry
Salsberry.1@osu.edu
Ohio State University
http://researchnews.osu.edu
(December
2005)
