By: Diana Barnes-Brown for Reflux1Some recent research on obese moms has shown that there is a connection between pre-pregnancy obesity and the weight of overweight moms’ children.
Pamela Salsberry, Ph.D., and Patricia Reagan, Ph.D., along with fellow researchers at the College of Nursing and School of Public Health at Ohio State University recently published a study of 3,000 pairs of moms and kids, documenting mothers’ weight habits and their children’s height and weight until the children reached age 7.
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According to womenshealth.gov, incorporating these points into your diet will put you on track to avoid obesity:
Follow a diet that helps you lose weight or keeps your BMI in a healthy range. (Calculate your BMI here
Keep your eating plan balanced between the food groups.
Limit your intake of saturated fat.
Include grains – especially whole grains which are a good source of fiber.
Be sure to eat enough fruits and vegetables (5-9 servings per day)
Limit calories from added sugars. (candy, cookies and soda)
Keep your sodium intake under 2,400 milligrams per day.
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The researchers found that children of mothers who were obese before pregnancy are more likely to be overweight during these earlier years of childhood. In addition, they found that children of mothers who smoke during pregnancy or are black or Hispanic are more likely to be overweight. Whether the results were due to a genetic predisposition to obesity and obesity as connected to certain other factors – such as likelihood to smoke or race – or to patterns of eating behavior in these groups was not clear. However, many dietary and psychology experts argue that when it comes to eating behaviors, bad habits as well as good can be learned by children.
In a recent news release, Salsberry noted that “weight states tend to persist over time,” which means that toddlers who are overweight or obese are likely to stay overweight or obese into later childhood and even adulthood, unless appropriate steps are taken by parents and medical or nutritional consultants to stop the progression.
“Interventions should begin immediately for children who are already overweight at… young ages,” stated Salsberry, who also noted “prevention of childhood obesity needs to begin before a woman ever gets pregnant.”
The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), one of the National Institutes of Health, supported the study. Salsberry’s findings emphasize “how the health habits of the mother prior to and during pregnancy may impact the health of her child through the early years of childhood and possibly through adulthood,” said Dr. Patricia A. Grady, Director of the NINR.
In the group of 3,022 mother-child pairs, the mothers who were overweight before pregnancy had children who were three times more likely to be overweight by the age of 7 than mothers who were healthy weights. In particular, the weight of mothers within about two months before becoming pregnant had the biggest effect on the children’s weight. Also, the likelihood of overweight children increased with the degree of mothers’ obesity.
Four to 6 percent more black and Hispanic children were overweight than white children, but the percentage of all ethnicities who were overweight decreased with age.
Mothers who smoked during pregnancy were also more likely to have heavy children.
The findings underscore the importance of mothers’ behaving responsibly with their own health before and during pregnancy, and especially given the rapidly rising numbers of overweight adults and children in the United States, members of the science and medical communities are eager to conduct further research on the topic, in order to delve deeper into a cutthroat search for causes and effects of obesity.
The researchers published their findings in the journal Pediatrics.
