We know that a diet high in sugar and fat during pregnancy is harmful to mother and child. A study conducted by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has even linked childhood epilepsy. Increasing too much weight in the early stages of pregnancy in fact increase the risk of epilepsy in children.

Little is known about both the causes of both maternal obesity effects on neurological health of the child. According to the Swedish study, the two things were connected in part. Dr. Neda Razaz has therefore conducted a study of more than 1.4 million pregnancies occurred in Sweden between 1997 and 2011. It examined the body mass index (BMI) of the mothers in the first quarter and has crossed the data with the number of epileptic children. This has found a correlation between maternal index very high and likely to develop the disease.

Of 1.4 million children examined, until 2012 7,592 (0.5%) are epileptic results. The incidence of epilepsy among individuals with between 28 days and 16 years is an average of 6.79 per 10,000. Among the children of normal-weight women with a BMI around 25, it is 6.30 per 10,000. Among the children of women with a BMI of 25-30, however, it is 12.4 per 10,000. A large excess weight in the early stages of pregnancy therefore increases the risk of childhood epilepsy about 11%.
More serious is the obesity increases the risk for the baby. For BMI 30-35, the risk is higher than 20%. For BMI 35-40 the risk is higher than 30%. In the case of obesity grade III, and BMI over 40, there is even talk of a 82% higher risk.

According to the researchers, maternal obesity may cause inflammation that would undermine fetal development. This would lead to brain damage that could stimulate the emergence of neurological disorders. In addition, other studies have shown that an excess of fat and sugar in pregnancy causes metabolic disorders is the woman in the child. This could lead to further complications in adult life.

Source: guardian.ng