Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Is Associated with Age-Specific Alterations in Markers of Adiposity in Offspring: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Maternal hyperglycemia alters an offspring’s metabolic health outcomes, as demonstrated by the increased risk for obesity, impaired glucose handling and diabetes from early childhood onwards. Infant growth patterns are associated with childhood adiposity and metabolic health outcomes and, as such, can be used as potential markers to detect suboptimal metabolic development at an early age. Hence, we aimed to assess whether gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has an impact on offspring growth trajectories. Outcomes included weight gain (WG), body mass index (BMI), and skin fold thickness (SFT) measured at least at two time points from birth to later childhood. In addition, we explored the role of early life pre- and post-natal nutritional modifiable factors on longitudinal growth in infants of mother with GDM (GDM–F1). Despite the large heterogeneity of the studies, we can still conclude that GDM seems to be associated with altered growth outcomes in the offspring. More specifically, these alterations in growth outcomes seem to be rather time-specific. Increased SFT were reported particularly at birth, with limited information on reporting SFT between 2–5 y, and increased adiposity, measured via SFT and BMI, appeared mainly in later childhood (5–10 y). Studies evaluating longitudinal growth outcomes suggested a potential role of early life nutritional modifiable factors including maternal nutrition and breastfeeding. These may impact the cycle of adverse metabolic health by attenuating growth outcome alterations among GDM–F1. Conclusions: Timely diagnoses of growth deviations in infancy are crucial for early identification of GDM–F1 who are at risk for childhood overweight and metabolic disease development.