Being Pregnant
Will Your Chubby Baby Be A Chubby Child and Is It Your Fault?
Does chubby at birth equal a chubby childhood?
As I mentioned ad nauseum (literally!) during my pregnancy, I gained a boatload of weight (this link click is SO worth it, I swear!). Like, sixty pounds. Experts recommend that normal weight gain during pregnancy should be between 25 to 35 pounds. Ha to the ha ha! I had to eat to keep from puking. Okay, so I didn’t have to eat Wendy’s chicken sandwiches and french fries every day, but still!
A new study suggests I wasn’t doing my Henry any favors by gaining all that weight. Women who gain an excessive amount of weight while pregnant tend to have chubbier babies which is a possible risk factor for childhood obesity.
“Excessive weight gain during pregnancy, regardless of pre-pregnancy weight, is an important risk factor for newborn obesity,” said Dr. Jami Josefson, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Memorial Hospital, in a news release from The Endocrine Society
So what exactly is excessive weight gain? Well, like I mentioned, the average weight gain is between 25 and 35 pounds, overweight women should keep weight gain between 15 and 25 pounds, while obese women should limit weight gain to 11 to 20 pounds.
Here’s how the study worked:
The study included 56 women — 31 whose pregnancy weight gain fell within the guidelines and 25 who gained too much. None of the women had gestational diabetes. Researchers tested infant’s body fat within 48 hours of delivery using what they say is a newer, more accurate technique. Babies born to women who exceeded the guidelines had 17.5 ounces of body fat compared to 13.9 ounces among newborns of women whose weight gain fell within the guidelines.
Researchers noted the link between pregnancy weight gain and baby’s body fat regardless of the women’s weight before becoming pregnant. Interestingly, obese women are more likely to exceed weight gain recommendations, with about 70 percent going above what is recommended compared to 31 percent of women of normal weight.
Researchers acknowledge more research needs to be done to determine if high amounts of fat at birth are associated with being overweight as a kid.
So, maybe those chubby cheeks aren’t so cute after all? Nah… chubby cheeks will always be adorable.
Image: Flickr.com/ladybugbkt
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13 Comments
Emily commented on Jun 08 11 at 11:03 amWhen my brother was born, he was really chubby – 10 lbs, 12 oz. His rolls had rolls. Obesity runs in the family, so my mother was terrified for his health. He’s all grown up now, 6’5″ and 170 lbs. So skinny he has to run around in the shower to get wet. :) I know it’s just anecdotal, but it’s true!
Amanda commented on Jun 08 11 at 12:54 pmI went from 157lbs to 209lbs(5′ 9″) with my (now) 11month old son. He was 10lbs 4 oz when he was born and very chubby. But now you cant even tell. He is still a stocky little guy but its all evened out. I was also a big baby (10lbs 9oz) but I am also not over weight and never have been! Yes I have not lost all of the weight from my previous pregnancy, which scares me for the current one a bit, but I am not obese by any means! And I know a friend of mine in college was born at 10lbs 7oz and he is freaking bean poll! Soooo no worries momma, its all on how you teach them to eat right and healthy in the future and keep them active! Go on and continue to adore those chubby cheeks!
ceridwen commented on Jun 08 11 at 1:00 pmI read about this study and found it so distressing!! There is so much research about the dangers of NON CHUBBY babies. Low birth weight is a serious issue. This was a small study that I have not read but it concerns me that we start worrying about fat babies without good info. Monica, I’m with you, chubby cheeks will always be adorable.
Jess commented on Jun 08 11 at 4:02 pmI still think genetics plays a big(ger?) role. I gained 50-55 lbs with my son (started at about 122 lbs). He was a big guy at birth…9 lbs 7 oz. He was never one of those cute rolls of fat chubby babes, though. And after several months his weight percentile started dropping until, ultimately, instead of being in the 95th percentil for weight, he was around the 20th percentile. He’s almost three years now and is still fitting into many of his 12-18 month shorts.
Denise commented on Jun 08 11 at 6:10 pmI’m pretty sure at this point that there is not a pregnant women alive that is not doing something that will negatively effect her baby. I swear all the medical studies in the world never find anything positive! My husband was 9 pounds 10 ounces when he was born and at 30 years old is far from overweight, he looks great and has never struggled with his weight. He was a handsome chubby little baby and is now just a handsome man! Bring on the french fries! I think our babies will all be okay!
Rosstwinmom commented on Jun 09 11 at 7:55 amI would worry more about skinny babies (which I had) because those little ones need their fat! It’s good for brain development and for body temp regulation. My twin chickens got so cold! Poor, tiny November babies!
MoreAnon commented on Jun 09 11 at 3:20 pmI just want to say that keeping your pregnancy weight down DOES NOT APPLY FOR MULTIPLE BIRTHS. If you find out you are having twins (or more), you need to eat LOTS of protein and calcium, and double up on your folic acid supplement (still staying under the maximum limit, but that’s pretty high). Multiple babies need all the protein and calcium they can get! That said, cut down on sweets etc. so you don’t turn into a complete balloon. (Also get tested for gestational diabetes early on, at about 12 wks.) But eat, eat eat the good stuff. I gained 60+ lbs in my twin pregnancy, and my boys were born at just 4.5 lbs and 6 lbs even (at almost 36 weeks). Do NOT skimp on nutrition for multiple births.
Rachel commented on Jun 09 11 at 9:45 pmI gained almost no weight with my first, (I was 5’2 pregregnacy 97lbs, full term 11) and my son was 23 inches long and weighed more then 8 pounds! He was big at birth( I personally suspect that they assembled him on the table, no way that came outa me!) but by the time he was one, he had dropped to the 10th percentile. Just cus they start as chunks doesn’t mean they stay that way.
im-in-tx commented on Jun 09 11 at 9:47 pmI think these studies will ultimately be proven inaccurate, and serve little purpose other than acting as one more thing to drive pregnant women nuts.
Mama Wrench commented on Jul 10 11 at 12:19 pmIt’s all about lifestyle. Some babies are overweight because their mothers were overweight during pregnancy, but how much of that is due to the mother’s diet and lifestyle habits? If mom ate poorly during pregnancy, chances are good that she’ll eat poorly after pregnancy, and that baby will grow up eating poorly. If baby is heavy because he’s supposed to be healthy and not because of lifestyle or diet, there’s no reason to expect he’ll be an unhealthy weight later on.
I was VERY heavy as a baby/toddler and grew out of it naturally (I now have a BMI of 18.9, just barely above “underweight,” after gaining and losing 50 pounds with my first pregnancy.) My son has been straight 50th percentile for everything but head size since birth. (He has a giant head, 95th percentile — he’s a bobblehead.) Honestly, we scarf down veggies and lean proteins and run around constantly in our house so I’m not worried. I’d rather have a fat newborn than a sickly, skinny one.
SirUlrichsMom commented on Jul 19 11 at 6:28 pmi went well beyond the weight that most women do but im a big girl (just over 6ft) and im big boned. i gained 85lbs during my pregnancey with my little man. tho most was of it was in my but and thighs. i barely looked pregnant(i just looked like id gained weight) until the last few weeks of my pregnancy. my son was BIG but he wasnt fat. he was 10lbs 8oz and 24in long.
to get clothes to fit him in length we had to put clothes on him that we extremely baggy. he had a good 3-4 inches of extra fabric around him.
at 8 1/2 months he is 24lbs and stands almost 30in tall. his doctor is amazed at how fast he devlopes. at 2 weeks he was holding his head up without any problem, hes ben rolling over with ease since he was about 5weeks, and he could stay sitting on his own since he was 10weeks, he stared pulling himself up to a standing position at 6 1/2months and he started crawling at 7months. i did not push him to do any of this, he did it all on his own.
its all in their DNA. my son comes from big, fast growing, fast developing people, so that is what he will be.
skelly commented on Jul 24 11 at 6:39 pmOn the other end of the spectrum, I’ve always found my own pregnancy weight gain to be kind of interesting. I was a VERY large baby, I had to be delivered by c-section a full month early because I was already weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz. My poor mother. Didn’t exactly set me up for obesity, since I’ve been noticeably underweight as long as I can remember. When my daughter was conceived I weighed in at a whopping 115 pounds at 5’8″. I ended up gaining about 35 pounds with no extra effort aside from eating a bowl of peanuts or almonds a day at my OB’s nurse’s request to try to get some good fats in me. I ended up delivering a lovely baby girl only 4 days early weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz. When I weighed in 2 months post partum I had lost all but 5 pounds of my pregnancy weight with no effort at all and have since gone back to my pre baby body entirely. Aside from making all my mommy friends hate me, I like to share that story as an example of how occasionally your body will do the work for you. I may just be lucky, but even a (at times) severely underweight woman can maintain totally normal pregnancy weight and a totally normal sized baby with only the smallest changes to diet. That 7lb 3oz baby girl is now 18 month old and in the 95th percentile for height, 50th for weight and eats like a little piggy. Looks like someone is taking after her mommy (we’ll just ignore the 6’4” 200lb daddy and call her metabolism a mommy trait :P).
Sheps girl commented on Feb 24 12 at 10:34 amI have 4 children. 3 grown and out of the house, 1 adorable baby. My chubbiest baby from birth through toddler years is now a perfect built 6 foot tall 175 pound grown man. My other 2 grown children who were much smaller, were both considered “failure to thrive and grossly under weight” by the doctors and as infants both had been admitted to the hospital for low weight for a week. (different cities, hospitals, doctors, same breast milk & routine) they are also grown adults now and considered over weight by today’s medical standards. To me, they’re beautiful just the way they are. I would much rather seem them a little over weight yet still healthy than sickly and thin like they used to be. And the hugs are the best!
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