Healthy weight advised before pregnancy

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 16 (UPI) -- A child's body-weight-regulating mechanisms might be permanently altered by a mom-to-be's signals linked to the mother's overweight, U.S. researchers say.

Kartik Shankar of the Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center in Little Rock, Ark., and colleagues are taking a closer look at how influences that occur in the womb -- and perhaps during the first few months of life -- might affect development of a child's ability to regulate his or her weight later in life.

Shankar looked at weight gains among rat pups whose dads were lean and whose mothers, called "dams," were either lean or overweight -- from overfeeding -- before conception and throughout pregnancy.

All offspring were of normal weight at birth and at weaning. However, when the weaned offspring were given free access to an unlimited amount of high-fat rations, the offspring of overweight dams showed remarkable sensitivity to the high-fat rations.

The pups gained significantly more weight, and more of that weight as fat mass, than did the offspring of lean dams, the researchers say.

The study is published in Agricultural Research magazine.