Risk of high BP in children

Small baby boys who are thin at birth and gain weight rapidly in childhood and adolescence appear to be at a higher risk for elevated blood pressure, according to a new study. These higher blood pressure levels may contribute to heart disease later in life.Past studies have identified low birth weight alone as a risk factor for high blood pressure later in life, leading many experts to suggest that a person's adult blood pressure is determined during life in the womb. Researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill studied 2,026 children who were followed from birth until their teen years. Subjects were drawn from a Health and Nutrition Survey, which enrolled pregnant women and followed their offspring through age 14 to 16 years.The new study found that low birth weight infant boys who gained weight rapidly between the ages of 8 and 16 had the highest blood pressure. Weight gain in the first two years of life actually reduced the risk of high blood pressure. Faster growth in infancy did not represent a risk for increased blood pressure in adolescence for either sex. This period of weight gain may even be slightly protective against high blood pressure later. This is an important finding because paediatricians want to see improved growth in babies born small. They did not find the same relationship in girls. The synergistic effect on adolescent BP of rapid weight gain from late childhood into adolescence with thinness at birth further suggests long-term health risks associated with rapid growth, even in the absence of obesity.The findings underscore the need for pregnant women to obtain the best nutrition possible for their developing fetus and newborn. For boys who are putting on a lot of weight as they grow up, parents should be more careful about their diet and exercise and other risk factors. Future research should seek to identify specific modifiable factors that influence fetal growth patterns and disease development in the postnatal period.