Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affects approximately 1 in 20 pregnancies in the UK, and can have adverse health implications for mother and infant.

Logan et al. conducted a prospective longitudinal study in 86 infants using magnetic resonance imaging scans to assess how body fat in offspring of mothers with GDM differed from those without GDM over the first 3 months following birth. GDM had been well-controlled in all cases, and breastfeeding rates were similar in the two groups during the course of the study (GDM group, 71%; control group, 74%). Despite there being no difference in body fat content at birth, at 10 weeks of age, infants born to mothers with GDM had significantly more body fat than those born to unaffected mothers.

The reasons for this are unclear, but the finding suggests that adiposity in infants whose mothers had GDM is amplified early in infancy, indicating a potential causal pathway to later adverse metabolic health.

Read the full article in Diabetes Care doi:10.2337/dc16-0030