Health News

A Weighty Matter for Those Wanting to Get Pregnant
Losing weight may need to be a priority for heavier women who are thinking about getting pregnant.
Obesity's Role in Newborn Fat Mass
Parents play a crucial part in keeping their children healthy. For mothers, that influence starts when their baby is in the womb.
Being Big with an Early Baby
When a woman becomes pregnant, her health affects her and her baby both. Being overweight or obese can also play a part in how a woman's pregnancy goes.
Obese Mamas Pass Along Less Vitamin D
Pregnant women are advised to take prenatal vitamins to ensure they get all the nutrients they need. But their weight may play a role in how many of those nutrients reach their baby.
Put the Cigarette Down & No One Gets Fat
If you're thinking of lighting up while a little one kicks in your tummy, this might stop you. Do you want an overweight child?
Big Mama, Big Babies, More Complications
Being overweight or obese during pregnancy can put women at a higher risk for gestational diabetes, which increases the risk of birth complications.
Overweight Pregnancy Affects Baby Growth
Being obese and pregnant can carry a range of risks to the mother during pregnancy, but it also has consequences for her baby, in the short-term and the long-term.
Mom's Weight & Kids' Test Scores
Shedding pounds before getting pregnant can reduce a number of health risks - but it may also add a few points to your child's reading and math scores. A recent study has found a link between a mother's weight before pregnancy and their children's cognitive skills: obese women's children score lower on math and reading tests when they were 5 to 7 years old. Get to a healthy weight before becoming pregnant. Lead author Rika Tanda , a nursing doctoral candidate at Ohio State University, and colleagues wanted to investigate potential connections between a mother's pre-pregnancy ob...
Leave Out the Cereal, Mom
If money is always low and stress or depression is always high, moms may be overfeeding their babies - and thereby increasing their kids' risks of obesity. A recent unpublished study being presented at a conference found that the unhealthy practice of adding cereal to babies' bottles tends to occur more often among low-income mothers who are single and/or showing symptoms of depression or high stress. Don't add cereal to your baby's bottle. Lead author Candice Taylor Lucas, MD, a an associate professor of pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital...
Air Pollution Link to Childhood Obesity
It may not just be chicken nuggets and french fries adding too much weight to children's waistlines. The very air pregnant women breathe might play a small role too.