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A Link Between Maternal and Childhood Obesity

S. Robinson

Published 2019 in Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity

ABSTRACT

Abstract Early life may be a critical period for the development and persistence of childhood obesity. There is now considerable epidemiological evidence to support the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) concept: maternal influences in the intrauterine environment can affect the development and long-term metabolic health outcomes of the offspring, including the “programming” of child body composition. Many potential prenatal factors have been identified, including maternal obesity before conception and during pregnancy, and excess gestational weight gain. Although it may not be possible to fully elucidate the exact proportion of childhood obesity attributable to genes or the environment, it is most likely that obesity in mothers and their children is linked through the effects of both shared genes and shared environmental influences, with important effects on gene-environment interactions. Maternal obesity may also impact directly on the nature of their children's diets and levels of physical activity through the shared postnatal environment and the modeling of health behaviors. This chapter considers some of the early life determinants of childhood obesity, including genetics and the postnatal environment, but focuses particularly on the role of the prenatal environment in the link between overweight and obesity in mothers and their children, and proposed causal mechanisms.

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