Pregnant and Gained Less Than 25lbs? Bad News

The amount of weight a mom-to-be gains during pregnancy may have a link to the weight of the child she bears, a new study finds. Gaining either too much or too little weight can both result in a greater chance that child will be obese, LiveScience reports. The research followed 4,145 women and their kids between ages 2 and 5. What they found:

• Women with a normal body mass index before pregnancy are advised to gain 25 to 35 pounds; those who gained less were 63% more likely to have an overweight or obese kid.
• Moms in that group who gained more than that recommended amount were 80% more likely to have an overweight or obese kid.
• Of all women who gained less than the recommended amount of weight, some 19.5% had overweight or obese kids.
• Of those who gained more, 20.4% had kids in that category; that's compared to 14.5% of kids whose moms gained the recommended amount of weight.

Why? "Gaining either too little or too much weight in pregnancy may permanently affect mechanisms that manage energy balance and metabolism in the offspring, such as appetite control and energy expenditure," a researcher says. The weight-gain recommendations came from the Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC, Medical Daily notes. (More pregnancy stories.)