Factors such as race, maternal prepregnancy weight, and smoking during pregnancy all exert a significant, long-lasting influence on childhood weight by creating an early tendency for a child to become overweight, which carries forward as the child ages.
Findings from the investigation led by Pamela J. Salsberry, Ph.D., and Patricia B. Reagan, Ph.D., suggest that prepregnancy maternal counseling to lose weight and stop smoking, as well as aggressive action to help even young children lose weight, could help prevent childhood obesity (Pediatrics 2005;116:1329–38).
In addition, certain factors may help “to identify children who are at high risk for the development of overweight at very young ages, thus providing an opportunity to target intensive preventive strategies before the establishment of an unhealthy weight pattern,” wrote Dr. Salsberry and Dr. Reagan of Ohio State University, Columbus.
The investigators examined weight trends in 3,022 children, from age 2 years up to nearly 8 years. They also looked at the influence of conditions that might affect weight, including race, maternal prepregnancy weight, maternal smoking, and breastfeeding. The participants weighed in for the study at the mean ages of 3, 5, and 7 years.
At each of the three weigh-ins, black and Hispanic children were more likely to be overweight than white children, although the percentage of children who were overweight decreased in all race groups as the children aged.
There were no significant differences between boys and girls in their risk of being overweight.
A history of breastfeeding was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of being overweight, especially at the first weigh-in (19% decreased risk).
Children whose mothers were underweight before pregnancy had a decreased risk of becoming overweight, an effect that grew more significant as they aged.
Conversely, children whose mothers were obese before pregnancy were almost three times more likely to become overweight by the last weigh-in than were children of normal-weight mothers.
Children who were overweight at the first weigh-in were more likely to be increasingly overweight later on. Children who were overweight at the second weigh-in were more than 16 times more likely to be overweight at the last weigh-in, compared with those who were not overweight at the second weigh-in.