Living a healthy lifestyle is not only important for yourself, but it is imperative for our kids. Studies now indicate that there is metobolic imprinting that takes place in utero through the first two years of life. This programming effects how your child will process and metabolize food for the rest of his or her life.
I am not one to jump on board with everything the CDC and the FDA push on us, but I think First Lady Micelle Obama has picked an admirable crusade. I believe in the Let’s Move campain. By the time children are obese it is very difficult to reverse the damage. Smoking and gaining excessive weight during pregnancy, not breastfeeding long enough, and lack of proper sleep during infancy are all risk factors in childhood obesety. These are all targets the Let’s Move campaign aims to tackle. We all need to take better care of ourselves.
Factors associated with increased risk for overweight or obesity in infancy and early childhood include excessive maternal weight gain or smoking during gestation, shorter-than-recommended duration of breast-feeding, and suboptimal amounts of sleep during infancy. Such exposures during early development program a person’s long-term regulation of energy balance and may have epigenetic effects. These exposures probably influence the development of hypothalamic circuits that regulate body weight, as well as endocrine pancreatic function, changes in the proportion of lean versus fat body mass, and other cycles of metabolic programming.3 -Let’s Move — Childhood Obesity Prevention from Pregnancy and Infancy OnwardJanet M. Wojcicki, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Melvin B. Heyman, M.D., M.P.H.
My Pyramid Plan for moms. This is a specialized calculator that will customize a food pyramid for you during you pregnancy.
You should talk to your midwife about things you can do to avoid gaining excess weight during pregnancy.
Stop smoking. Duh. It is gross anyway.
Breastfeed your babies for at least a year if not longer.
Make sure your baby is getting enough sleep.