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Infants exposed to COVID-19 in utero had an accelerated weight gain during the first year of life, but whether they go on to be more at risk of obesity, diabetes or cardiovascular disease remains unknown.
Harvard, Mass General Researchers Find Link Between Covid-19 in Mothers and Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children | News | The Harvard Crimson
The researchers studied 150 infants born to mothers who had Covid-19 during pregnancy and found they had lower birth weight followed by greater weight gain in the first year of life as compared to ~130 babies whose mothers did not have a prenatal infection.
Pregnant women make up 9 per cent of reproductive-aged women with COVID-19, which exposes millions of babies to maternal infection during foetal development over the next five years.
Children exposed to maternal COVID-19 during pregnancy showed lower birth weight, lower birth BMI, and accelerated postnatal weight gain, compared with those unexposed.