Pregnancy weight gain tilts the scales for child becoming obese

Unhealthy weight gain in pregnancy has been linked with infant size and body composition but until now little was known about its long-term association with childhood obesity among low-income and multi-ethnic youth. For the first time, researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health studied the effects of gestational weight gain on childhood obesity risk among a multi-ethnic urban population. The researchers determined that excessive pregnancy weight gain was associated with greater overall and abdominal body fat in children and obesity at age seven. Excessive pre-pregnancy weight gain was associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity of approximately 300 percent. Findings are published online in the journal Maternal & Child Nutrition.

Before pregnancy for this population of African-American and Dominican women, 45 percent were overweight or obese, and 64 percent of mothers gained more weight during pregnancy than recommended by the 2009 Institute of Medicine Guidelines. At age seven, 22 percent of the children born to the women studied were obese, and on average, 24 percent of their body mass was comprised of fat tissue. The 2009 Institute of Medicine Guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy were set to optimize prenatal, birth, and possibly longer-term health outcomes, and recommended that pregnant women gain weight within set ranges according to their pre-pregnancy body mass index. For example, it recommends that women in a normal weight range gain 25-35 lbs and approximately 1 lb per week in the 2nd and 3rd trimester. These guidelines should be used in conjunction with clinical judgment by healthcare providers.

"This is the first study to evaluate the long-term effects of gestational weight gain in a contemporary low-income multi-ethnic urban population, characterized by a high risk of obesity," noted Elizabeth Widen, PhD, RD, postdoctoral fellow at the Mailman School Department of Epidemiology, the Institute of Human Nutrition, and the New York Obesity Research Center.

Findings were based on data from the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health Mothers and Newborns Study in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx from 1998 to 2013. There were 727 mothers who self-identified as African-American or Dominican.

Most studies examining longer term effects of pregnancy weight gain on childhood body size typically only have measures of height and weight rather than estimates of body fat. Further, there has been little research on the long-term effects of gestational weight gain on childhood obesity risk in vulnerable populations.

Gain Weight Safely During Your Pregnancy

Eating a healthy, balanced diet will help your baby get the nutrients he or she needs and grow at a healthy rate. But how many extra calories do you really need?

Though you do need some extra calories, it's not necessary to ''eat for two.'' The average pregnant woman needs only about 300 healthy calories more a day than she did before she was pregnant. This will help her gain the right amount of weight during pregnancy.