Antibiotic use during pregnancy ‘can increase child’s obesity risk’

Mothers who take antibiotics during pregnancy could be at increased risk of their children becoming obese in later life.

A Columbia University study has found that children who were exposed to antibiotics in the second or third trimester of pregnancy had a higher risk of childhood obesity at age seven.

The study was based on data from 727 healthy, non-smoking, pregnant women, with children exposed to antibiotics during the highlighted time frame showing an 84 percent increase in their risk of obesity compared with children who were not exposed.

Dr Noel Mueller, a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Institute of Human Nutrition, said: "Our findings should not discourage antibiotic use when they are medically needed, but it is important to recognise that antibiotics are currently overprescribed."

Antibiotics affect microbes in the mother and may enter foetal circulation via the placenta. Disturbances in the normal transmission of bacteria from the mother to the child could place the child at risk for several health conditions.

Similar processes could explain why a number of recent studies have shown that smoking during pregnancy can result in numerous negative health outcomes for the offspring in later life.