Rachael Blum of Santa Mon­ica, CA, has alerted us to an excel­lent arti­cle in the New Eng­land Jour­nal of Med­i­cine con­cern­ing the evi­dence for the role of exer­cise in preg­nancy in help­ing pre­vent child­hood obe­sity:  http://healthcarereform.nejm.org/?p=3321&query=home. Rachael, our newest DTP fam­ily mem­ber, has also alerted us to an LA Times arti­cle on this sub­ject:  LA Times arti­cle.

With the recent empha­sis on the impor­tance of move­ment in the fight against child­hood obe­sity, there is recog­ni­tion that ben­e­fi­cial fetal pro­gram­ming through mater­nal exer­cise can make a big con­tri­bu­tion to this effort. A com­bi­na­tion of proper mater­nal nutri­tion and mater­nal fit­ness may well prove to be most effi­cient and poten­tially effec­tive way to help chil­dren develop an appetite for motion!

One fac­tor in this is the find­ing that reg­u­lar, moderate-intensity exer­cise helps pre­vent obe­sity in the new­born: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_97212.htmlt. This, may in turn, help pre­vent child­hood obesity.

Recess for everyone!!!