Hormonal
Greater maternal pre-pregnancy BMI is associated with increased offspring fat mass, but this specific maternal effect is small and unlikely to drive the recent obesity epidemic.
Maternal obesity during pregnancy does increase a child's risk of higher fat mass, but the effect is small. It is not the primary driver of the obesity epidemic. Focus on overall family lifestyle and genetics rather than blaming maternal pregnancy weight alone.
Neither our parental comparisons nor the use of FTO genotype as an instrumental variable, suggest that greater maternal BMI during offspring development has a marked effect on offspring fat mass at age 9–11 y. Developmental overnutrition related to greater maternal BMI is unlikely to have driven the recent obesity epidemic.
Why this rating
Large sample size (4,091 trios), robust statistical methods (IV analysis, parental comparisons), but observational nature limits causal certainty.
Source
Exploring the Developmental Overnutrition Hypothesis Using Parental–Offspring Associations and FTO as an Instrumental Variable
Debbie A. Lawlor et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2008
DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050033
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