Consuming Too Much During Pregnancy Raises the Risk of Low IQ in Child

Naturally, all the pregnant women even though they don’t feel like eating more, forcefully take more quantities in a view that they will be blessed with a healthy baby. But recent researches have discouraged these beliefs and have revealed that excessive intake of food may negatively affect the IQ of the child.

According to the research reports from an International Team that examined researches from all over the world, on the impact of maternal weight and child development, women who consume too much food during pregnancy raises the risk of low IQ, eating disorders, and psychosis in their children. They also added that the adverse effects of over consumption not only affect the child in childhood but also in adulthood and in adolescence. During adolescence the risk of psychological disorders like schizophrenia increases.

These findings were published in the International Journal of Obesity Reviews. The researchers have a set of reports from different parts of the world. Let us see what these reports are saying.

• A report from the researchers from the Mc Master University, Canada found that every increased Body Mass Index (BMI) unit of the pregnant women was linked to a significantly reduced IQ in the child. On an average the child born to an obese mother has five points low IQ when compared to the IQ of the child born to a mother with healthy weight.
• A similar study from Japan revealed that an extra point added to the BMI of the mother during early pregnancy increased the chance of developing schizophrenia in the adulthood of the child by 24%.
• According to the study conducted on Australian teenagers, every extra BMI point gained by their mother during pregnancy resulted in the increased eating disorder in those teenagers by 11%.
• Another study from Sweden reported that children born to overweight mothers were more likely to suffer from attention deficit problems.

Previous studies also supported the latest studies. They showed that out of 1000 babies, 16 suffered fetal or infant death if their mothers had a BMI greater than 30 in the early pregnancy, and in case of mothers with healthy BMI it is 9 out of 1000. This means the rate of fetal and infant deaths are twice as high among those born to obese mothers when compared to non-obese mothers.

Excess weight during pregnancy results in changes in the hormonal, cardiovascular, and immune systems, which also increase the risk of infant or fetal deaths.

The researchers have concluded saying women not to get panic with these reports. However, they advised women to get a healthy weight before conception and to eat healthily during pregnancy. At the same time they are warning them not to eat too much which makes them obese or not to do dieting which shows even more harmful effects on the baby.