The effect of maternal blood glucose control on infant body composition at birth

The objectives of this study were to determine whether infants born to mothers with gestational or pregestational diabetes (IDM) and infants born to mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies have differences in percent body fat at birth, and to examine the relationship between glycemic control in pregnancy and infant body fat.

Percent body fat was measured in 132 IDM in the well-baby nursery using air displacement plethysmography and compared to a previously published cohort of 249 healthy control infants using t-tests. Linear regression models were used to examine the relationship between maternal glycemic control and infant percent body fat at birth.

The difference in body fat between IDM and infants born to mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies was not clinically significant (12.9 ± 5 % vs 13.9 ± 4 %, p < 0.05). Among IDM, increasing maternal fasting blood glucose values and increasing percentages of elevated post-prandial glucose values were associated with increasing infant percent body fat. (β=0.19 and 0.08 respectively, P < 0.05).

Our cohort of healthy IDM that remained admitted to the term nursery did not have a clinically significant difference in percent body fat compared to control infants born to mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies. Among IDM, elevated maternal glucose levels correlated with increased infant percent body fat, suggesting glycemic control in pregnancy can affect body composition within this population.