Prevent obesity in children

Take care when you're pregnant to prevent obesity in children

How to prevent obesity in children - Almost all countries in the world now believe that obesity is a new epidemic that must be eradicated. The unhealthy lifestyle adopted by many people in urban areas is one of the triggers.

But actually there is one effective way to prevent obesity in children, which is to keep the mother's weight during pregnancy. Based on the latest research, children of mothers who have diabetes during pregnancy will have a high risk of being overweight at the age of 11.


The study also found that children of mothers who are obese, have a great chance to have weight problems than children of mothers who had normal weight.


"The best advice from me is, do not be overweight and you keep your body in good health before pregnancy," said Dr. Lois Jovanovic from the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in Santa Barbara, California, who was not involved in the study.


Importance of maintaining a healthy weight before and during pregnancy is also emphasized by U.S. First Lady, Michelle Obama, since President Barack Obama's wife led a task to combat childhood obesity.


Diabetes that appears during pregnancy, or known as gestational diabetes, is a condition that has the potential to attack up to 8% of pregnant women. Therefore, pregnant women must maintain a healthy body weight. Being overweight combined with certain genes will be a risk factor for obesity in children.


Children of mothers with gestational diabetes often have heavier weight at birth than children whose mothers do not have gestational diabetes.

In a recent study, Dr. Sandra Hummel and her colleagues at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, conducted a study to determine the impact of gestational diabetes and weight status on the risk of a child who was overweight in childhood and became resistant to insulin.


The scientists examined data from two major German studies involving 1420 children born between 1989 and 2000. Registered 232 children from mothers with gestational diabetes, 757 were born to mothers with type 1 diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes and 431 children born from mothers without diabetes. Measurement of blood sugar levels and body weight is done several times to children aged 14 years.

The scientists found that maternal weight in early pregnancy can be the strongest predictor in cases of excess child weight and insulin resistance.


At the age of 2.8 and 11 years, many more children from mothers who are obese are overweight compared with children from mothers who did not suffer from obesity, said researchers in the journal of Diabetes Care. For example, at the age of 11 years, 46% of the children from obese mothers were overweight compared with 12% of children from non-obese mothers.

Nearly a third (31%) of children born to mothers who develop gestational diabetes are overweight at the age of 11 years compared with less than 16% of children from diabetic mothers and mothers with type 1 diabetes.