The amount of body fat a child accumulates over time may be related to their mother's body mass index prior to and during pregnancy, study findings suggest

The investigators analyzed body fat measurements for 216 mothers who participated in a nutrition study during pregnancy and 216 of their children during infancy and again at 9 years of age. Their findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism

They found that height-adjusted fat mass measurements among the children correlated with the mother's pre-pregnancy body weight and late-pregnancy upper arm circumference

For each one point increase in the mother's pre-pregnancy body mass index, their son's and daughter's fat mass index rose by 0.26 and 0.44 of a point, respectively

Further research is needed to determine if this association is from the effect of a mother's excess weight prior to pregnancy; the effect of a mother's lifestyle on that of her child; or a genetic factor passed from mother to child