Prenatal exposure to antibiotics, cesarean section and risk of childhood obesity
International Journal of Obesity , (11 November 2014) | doi:10.1038/ijo.2014.180
N T Mueller, R Whyatt, L Hoepner, S Oberfield, M G Dominguez-Bello, E M Widen, A Hassoun, F Perera and A Rundle
Antibiotics even worse if used on child before age 2
See also VitaminDWiki
- Antibiotics and Vitamin D are associated with many of the same diseases
which includes the following pair of maps
Studies in both categories of Antibiotics and Pregnancy are listed here:
- Gestational Diabetes best fought by Vitamin D plus probiotics – RCT review Dec 2023
- 10 percent of all women had after-birth infections – majority had low vitamin D (PhD) – 2019
- Antibiotics during pregnancy may cause childhood health problems – Feb 2019
- Gut Microbiome is important during pregnancy – Dec 2014
- 1.8X increased risk of Obesity if antibiotics were used during pregnancy – Nov 2014
- 2000 IU vitamin D during pregnancy and 800 IU to infant resulted in less use of antibiotics – RCT April 2014
Background/Objectives:
Cesarean section (CS) and antibiotic use during pregnancy may alter normal maternal-offspring microbiota exchange, thereby contributing to aberrant microbial colonization of the infant gut and increased susceptibility to obesity later in life. We hypothesized that (i) maternal use of antibiotics in the second or third trimester of pregnancy and (ii) CS are independently associated with higher risk of childhood obesity in the offspring.
Subjects/Methods:
Of the 727 mothers enrolled in the Northern Manhattan Mothers and Children Study, we analyzed the 436 mother–child dyads followed until 7 years of age with complete data. We ascertained prenatal antibiotic use by a questionnaire administered late in the third trimester, and delivery mode by medical record. We derived age- and sex-specific body mass index (BMI) z-scores using the CDC SAS Macro, and defined obesity as BMI zgreater than or equal to95th percentile. We used binary regression with robust variance and linear regression models adjusted for maternal age, ethnicity, pre-gravid BMI, maternal receipt of public assistance, birth weight, sex, breastfeeding in the first year and gestational antibiotics or delivery mode.
Results:
Compared with children not exposed to antibiotics during the second or third trimester, those exposed had 84% (33–154%) higher risk of obesity, after multivariable adjustment. Second or third trimester antibiotic exposure was also positively associated with BMI z-scores, waist circumference and % body fat (all P<0.05).
Independent of prenatal antibiotic usage, CS was associated with 46% (8–98%) higher offspring risk of childhood obesity. Associations were similar for elective and non-elective CS.
Conclusions:
In our cohort, CS and exposure to antibiotics in the second or third trimester were associated with higher offspring risk of childhood obesity. Future studies that address the limitations of our study are warranted to determine if prenatal antibiotic use is associated with offspring obesity. Research is also needed to determine if alterations in neonatal gut microbiota underlie the observed associations.
See also web
- Antibiotics During Pregnancy May Increase Child’s Obesity Risk NYT 2014 report on this study
The mechanism is unclear, and the study shows only an association, but the lead author, Noel T. Mueller, a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia, suggested that the prenatal exchange of antibiotics between mother and child may affect the colonization of bacteria in the newborn’s gut.