[Early nutrition and weight evolution in children]

Maternal nutritional and metabolic factors which affect fetal growth and birth weight generate an increasing interest. Some of these factors might affect organs growth and functions, or might modify metabolism, toward a greater susceptibility to obesity and several chronic diseases (arterial hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases). Numerous epidemiological data support a negative relation between birth weight and these chronic diseases. Other studies indicate a positive relation between birth weight and body mass index in childhood or adulthood, which may be explained by a reduced lean mass; however, some of them suggest that a low birth weight would favored a troncular (central) fat distribution. In offsprings of mother with diabetes during pregnancy, a high birth weight, clearly predispose to obesity and insulin resistance since infancy, thus, demonstrating the deleterious effect of the in utero diabetic environment. Recent studies, indicate that even moderate maternal glucose tolerance abnormalities, of a lower grade than gestational diabetes, lead to an accelerated fetal adiposity growth. Furthermore, an early rapid postnatal growth is also a risk factor for children overweight. All these recent data, reinforce the need for studies to assess the complex interactions between prenatal and postnatal growth and their nutritional and genetic determinants. This is of importance due to the increasing number of women who are overweight when becoming pregnant, as well as, the regular increase in the prevalence of children overweight and obesity.