ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Treating gestational diabetes during pregnancy may be one way to lower an unborn baby's risk of becoming later in life.

A new study reveals untreated gestational diabetes nearly doubles a child's risk of becoming obese by ages five to seven. When a pregnant mother develops gestational diabetes, her blood sugar levels are directly affecting the baby. "These children have been metabolically imprinted to be obese because they were overfed in the womb from their mothers high blood sugar," Teresa Hillier, M.D, M.S., endocrinologist and senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research Northwest and Hawaii, told Ivanhoe.

However, new research reveals if the mother's diabetes is treated, the unborn baby has the same risk of becoming obese as a baby whose mother does not have gestational diabetes.

"There's still a background population risk of obesity, but treatment appears to reverse the effect that's happening from gestational diabetes," Dr. Hillier said.

Pregnant women who have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes in the past have been treated mainly to prevent macrosomia, which is abnormally high birth weight. Dr. Hillier says now the benefits of treatment are two-fold. Treatment can be relatively simple for pregnant mothers.

"You start with diet and exercise to try and control the blood sugar and promote healthy weight gain. If that doesn't happen, medication is used, which is typically insulin," Dr. Hillier said.

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland and Hawaii used an integrated database to find and collect data from 9,439 mothers who had no existing diabetes before pregnancy. Gestational diabetes affects up to 8 percent of pregnant women each year in the United States.

SOURCE: Ivanhoe Interview with Teresa Hiller, M.D., M.S.; Diabetes Care, 2007; 30:2287–2292