I have become increasingly interested in the role that excessive gestational weight gain plays in the childhood obesity epidemic.  Obviously a woman is supposed to gain weight during pregnancy, but nationally about 50% of pregnant women gain more weight than is recommended by the Institute of Medicine for a healthy pregnancy.  In our birth cohort in New York City 64% of the mothers gained more weight during pregnancy than is recommended and excessive gestational weight gain was associated with a three fold increase in the odds of obesity for the child at age 7.  Excessive gestational weight gain was also associated with larger waist circumference and higher percentage body fat for the child at age 7.  The paper is on pubmed [here].

I was also interviewed about our research on New York’s WNBC [see here].