Does parental weight affect children's growth?

 Does parental weight affect children's growth?

We know that a mother's obesity during pregnancy directly affects the health of her children, but the latest studies say that a father's weight also has a great effect as well, the details are in the following news:

Excessive weight gain in a parent leads to a delay in the growth of the children. This is how the latest studies say, but what is striking is that the effect of father’s obesity differs from that of the mother’s obesity, and the results are doubled when the two are overweight. Let's get to know the details together:

A study published in the Journal of the US National Health Institutes - NIH showed that children born to obese mothers were more likely to have delayed development of fine motor skills, and that children born to obese fathers were at risk. In a greater percentage, the development of social skills (Social Competences) is delayed. As for children born to a mother and father who both suffer from obesity, they are more likely to have poor problem skills (Problem Solving).

Previous studies did not pay much attention to the weight of the father, but focused only on the weight of the mother before, during and after pregnancy. However, this study, which was published in the Journal of Pediatrics, issued by the US National Institutes of Health, examined vital and important information about fathers, to find that the weight of the father It has a great impact on the development of children's skills and their mental and social development.

The researchers collected the study data through questionnaires that included questions about the general health of the family, the weight of the mother and the father before, during and after pregnancy, and the children’s data were collected after performing a set of standard activities that collected mothers and children through which children’s abilities were measured in various developmental areas. The study did not aim to diagnose specific developmental disabilities. Rather, it examined the skill set and abilities in order to convert children into more accurate examinations if needed.

More than 5,000 families participated in the data collection phase of the study between 2008 and 2010, where the examinations began 4 months after the birth of the children, then were repeated 6 times until the children reached their third year.

The results of children of obese mothers were much weaker than children of mothers of normal weight, as 70% of them failed to test fine motor skills at the age of 3 years, and 75% of children of obese fathers failed to examine the skills of social development in age The same, as for children whose two parents suffer from obesity, they failed to test problem-solving skills by three times more than children of normal weight parents (Read: How to deal with children).

It is not yet known why parental obesity affects the development of children, but researchers have indicated that some animal studies have found that obesity during pregnancy may lead to some infections that affect the development of the fetus’s brain, and they added that father’s obesity may affect the genetic makeup of sperm. .

If the information in this study is correct, clinicians should take into account the weight of the parents when examining periodically the growth and development of children in order to detect and monitor any developmental delays and take precautions and make the necessary interventions