Parents' obesity tied to development delays in children

A study conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found children with obese parents were at greater risk for developmental delays.

"The previous U.S. studies in this area have focused on the mothers' pre- and post-pregnancy weight," said the study's first author, Edwina Yeung, PhD, an investigator in NICHD's Division of Intramural Population Health Research. "Our study is one of the few that also includes information about fathers, and our results suggest that dad's weight also has significant influence on child development."

With one in five women in the United States being classified as overweight or obese, the nation is in the midst of an epidemic. The first study to measure the effects of an obese mother and obese father, this research, published in Pediatrics, used data collected from the Upstate KIDS study to analyze developmental effects on children born to obese parents.

The KIDS study, which was originally intended to test the effects of fertility treatments on child development, enrolled more than 5,000 women from 2008 to 2010 in New York. Parents were given a questionnaire after performing activities with their children. Children were tested at 4 months old and underwent six more evaluations until the age of 3.

When compared to the children of normal weight mothers, children of obese mothers were 70 percent more likely to fail fine motor skills tests by the age of 3. The children of obese fathers were 75 percent more likely to fail test on the personal-social domain, meaning they were less successful in interacting or relating to others. A child of two obese parents was three times more likely to fail a test on problem solving.

“If the link between parental obesity and developmental delays is confirmed, physicians may need to take parental weight into account when screening young children for delays and early interventional services," wrote Yeung et al.