Maternal Adiposity is Associated with Fat Mass Accretion in Female but not Male Offspring During the First 2 Years of Life

Objective This study investigated which antenatal and postnatal factors determine offspring adiposity during the first 2 years of life. Methods Participants were mother and child pairs (N = 224). Offspring percent fat mass (%FM) was obtained using quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance at 11 time points between ages 0.5 and 24 months. Independent variables included race, age, gestational weight gain, first‐trimester %FM, delivery mode, gestational measures of resting energy expenditure, respiratory exchange ratio, physical activity, serum cytokines and lipids, and dietary intake for the mothers, as well as sex, birth weight and length, breastfeeding duration, and physical activity at age 2 years for the children. Linear mixed models were used to construct the best‐fitted models for the entire cohort and for each sex. Results Maternal %FM (P = 0.006), high‐density lipoprotein (HDL) (P