Treating Diabetes during Pregnancy Can Break Link to Childhood Obesity

From Kaiser Permanente, the largest study of its kind, this research shows that the risk of childhood obesity rises in tandem with a pregnant woman's blood sugar level and that untreated gestational diabetes nearly doubles a child's risk of becoming obese by age 5 to 7. The study also shows for the first time that by treating women with gestational diabetes, the child's risk of becoming obese is significantly reduced. In fact, children whose moms were treated for gestational diabetes had the same risk for becoming obese as children whose mothers had normal blood sugar levels.