Babies who grow quickly in the first three months of life may be at greater risk of suffering from asthma in later life.
Dr Liesbeth Duijts, of The Generation R Study Group at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, said early infancy appeared to be a “critical period for the development of asthma”.
“We know that low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of asthma symptoms in children, but the effects of specific foetal and infant growth patterns on this risk had not been examined yet,” she said.
“In our study, weight gain acceleration in early infancy was associated with an increased risk of asthma symptoms in children of preschool age, independent of foetal growth patterns, suggesting that early infancy might be a critical period for the development of asthma.”
The study, which is published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, examined 5,125 children who were part of the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective cohort study.
They were followed from foetal life through to the age of four and information on asthma symptoms was obtained by questionnaires at the ages of one, two, three and four.
Dr Duijts said while there was no consistent relationship between foetal length and weight growth and the development of asthma symptoms, rapid weight gain from birth to three months following normal foetal growth was associated with increased risks of asthma symptoms.
“Our results suggest that the relationship between infant weight gain and asthma symptoms is not due to the accelerated growth of foetal growth-restricted infants only," she explained.
“While the mechanisms underlying this relationship are unclear, accelerated weight growth in early life might adversely affect lung growth and might be associated with adverse changes in the immune system.”
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine January 20 2012
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