Might children born of gestational diabetic mothers have neurological problems in infancy?

Introduction: Nutritional factors may affect metabolic programming in early life. Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during pregnancy has been linked to impaired fetal development and it is uncertain its long-term effects during childhood. Objectives: To analyze the influence of maternal GDM on neuropsychological, temperamental and behavioral development in their children at 8.5 years old. Methods: 156 children from the GD-Brain multicenter prospective cohort study were evaluated at 8.5 years (76 GDM offspring and 80 offspring from healthy control mothers). Of these subjects, 49 children were recruited at Murcia University, and 107 at the Granada University, with no gender differences between groups. To evaluate neurodevelopment, we used Children Behavioral Check list (CBCL) and PSQ tests for behavior and sleep measurements, K-BIT and BENCI neuropsychological battery tool for neurodevelopment, and EAS for temperament assay. Results: GDM mothers had greater pregestational BMI than controls, and shorter breastfeeding which is often associated with fetal obesity programming. Logistic regression analyses showed that children of GDM group had higher attentional and/or hyperactivity problems (CBCL test) (OR: 1.224; 95 % CI: 1.041-1.437, p = .014). The BENCI test results were contradictory: GDM offspring had more intrusions on a 3rd verbal memory test (OR: 2.953; 1.076-8.104, p = .035), while less perseverative failures on a delayed trial of Verbal Memory (OR: 0.289, 0.098-0.850, p = .024) and need less time in alternate visual-motor coordination task (OR: 0.894, 0.289-0.958, p= .002). Center, Mother's IQ, BMI, and duration of breastfeeding were included in the model as covariables; further ANCOVAS analyses adjusting by them, confirmed more attention problems in the offspring born to GDM mothers as well as higher number of children showing internalizing and externalizing problems. Conclusions: GDM during pregnancy has long-term consequences on children's behavior development at 8.5 years old.