Background: Children of diabetic mothers are at higher risk to be macrosomic at birth, and overweight during childhood. To the best of our knowledge, no study followed those children until adult age.
Objective: To compare height and weight of children born to diabetic mothers with those of children born to non diabetic mothers at birth and at age 17.
Methods: We identified all full term neonates of diabetic mothers born between 1987 and1993 in the Rabin Medical Center in Israel. The control group included neonates born to healthy mothers during the same period. The birth sizes (length and weight) and height, weight and BMI at age 17 as measured at the recruitment centers of IDF, were compared between groups.
Results: There were 447 children (235 males) from mothers with gestational diabetes (GDM), 97 children (51 males) from mothers with pre-gestational diabetes (PGDM) and 544 children (265 males) in the control group. At age 17 we were able to track 674 adolescents (61.95% of the original groups).
At birth neonates of diabetic mothers weighed significantly more than controls, and a higher percentage of neonates were above the 90th percentile of weight and of length. At age 17, children of diabetic mothers had a higher BMI compared to controls.
Conclusions: children of diabetic mothers tend to be long and overweight at birth, and to become overweight adolescents, who are at risk to develop future metabolic syndrome.
