Gestational diabetes increases risk of obesity

Those children who are born to mothers with gestational diabetes (GD) are more likely to become overweight or obese than others in their peer group. Successfully managing and treating diabetes reduces this risk, a new study has shown.
The researchers examined the cases of 10,000 women and children who enrolled in the Kaiser Permanente plans in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. The study just tracked those with GD, rather than full-blown diabetics who had children .
The study, which was published in medical journal Diabetes Care, concluded that child weight and blood glucose levels of the mother were directly associated.
Dr. Hillier, lead researcher, reportedly commented: “Our results suggest that ‘metabolic imprinting’ of the future child for obesity occurs with one or more abnormalities on an oral glucose tolerance test. The risk is modifiable by treating gestational diabetes.”