Adriëtte Oostvogels

Hypothesis 5: Girls are more susceptible to the adverse cardiometabolic consequences of maternal overweight before pregnancy. Postnatal growth in weight, height and BMI was faster in girls of mothers with overweight compared to girls of mothers with normal weight. Among boys, however, only growth in weight and BMI, but not height, was faster in boys of mothers with overweight than among boys of mothers with normal weight. Moreover, positive associations between maternal lipids and offspring’s lipids were more often found in girls and, when these associations were found in both boys and girls, these associations tended to be twice as strong in girls compared with boys. Therefore, our hypothesis that girls are more susceptible to adverse cardiometabolic consequences of maternal overweight can be confirmed, as girls of mothers with overweight have accelerated postnatal growth and stronger positive associations between maternal and childhood lipids than boys. 222 Chapter 9