Childhood Obesity Starts from the Mother’s Womb

America has been getting heavier for a long time. Supersize Me? Fast Food Nation? Cartoons, artworks, film productions have used perhaps reasonable hyperbole to describe the obesity of the American people. Well, our first lady is stepping up to deal with childhood obesity. Last month, Michelle Obama promised to end childhood obesity in her campaign. Although controlling obesity during childhood is very important, new research indicates that interventions aimed at school-aged children may be too late. One of the interesting findings was the mother determines the child’s BMI during her pregnancy. Studies show that the mother’s womb in the first environment for the fetus and should that first environment be excessively large due to mother’s oversize, the baby will more likely develop diabetes and have BMI higher than normal throughout childhood. This result demonstrates how parents need to be educated about their children’s obesity management and also learn how the mother’s pregnancy period can affect the way the children will grow.