Prepregnancy Obesity Linked to Child Test Scores

Another example of early poor parenting perpetrated by the fat on their kids.

Women who are obese before they become pregnant are at higher risk of having children with lower cognitive function -- as measured by math and reading tests taken between ages 5 to 7 years -- than are mothers with a healthy prepregnancy weight, new research suggests.

In this large observational study, prepregnancy obesity was associated, on average, with a three-point drop in reading scores and a two-point reduction in math scores on a commonly used test of children's cognitive function.

Previous research has suggested that a woman's prepregnancy obesity can have a negative effect on fetal organs, such as the heart, liver and pancreas. Because fetal development is rapid and sensitive to a mother's physiological characteristics, Ohio State University researchers sought to find out whether a mother's obesity also could affect the fetal brain.

"One way you measure the effects on the brain is by measuring cognition," said Rika Tanda, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in nursing at Ohio State.

Simply put, the fat should not reproduce.