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Background: The aims of the study were to: (a) describe BMI-for-age trajectories in children up to four years of age; (b) evaluate the association between prepregnancy maternal BMI and the BMI-for-age trajectories., Methods: Data from 3218 (75.3% of the original cohort) children from the Pelotas 2015 Birth Cohort were analyzed. Prepregnancy BMI (kg/m 2 ) was measured on the perinatal interview. Z-scores of BMI-for-age were calculated for children at three months, 1, 2 and 4 years. Trajectories were identified using a semi-parametric group-based modeling approach. Multinomial logistic regression was used to test the association between prepregnancy BMI (weight excess: BMI ≥ 25 kg/m 2 ) and BMI-for-age trajectories., Results: Four trajectories of the BMI-for-age, in z-score, were identified and represent children in the "increasing", "adequate", "stabilized" and "risk for weight excess" group. A total of 196 children (7.1%) belonged to the group that was at risk of weight excess. Adjusted analyses showed that children whose mothers presented prepregnancy weight excess had 2.36 (95%CI 1.71; 3.24) times more risk of belonging to group "risk for weight excess" when compared to those children whose mothers presented underweight/normal weight before pregnancy., Conclusion: The risk of weight excess in children up to 4 years of age were greater in mothers who presented prepregnancy weight excess., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Background: The association of physical activity through early childhood on children's chronic stress still is unclear. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to test the association of physical activity through early childhood (1-4 y) with chronic stress, measured by hair cortisol at age 4., Methods: Longitudinal study including children from the 2015 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort. Cortisol at age 4 was measured using a hair sample, which provided cortisol concentration from the past months. Physical activity was measured using accelerometers at 1, 2, and 4 years. Linear regression models were used to assess the association between physical activity and chronic stress. Trajectory models were also applied to examine chronic stress in relation to physical activity patterns throughout early childhood., Results: Children with valid physical activity and hair cortisol data were included in the analyses (N = 1475). Three groups of physical activity trajectories between 1 and 4 years were identified: low, medium, and high. No association between physical activity at 1, 2, and 4 years and chronic stress at age 4 was observed. However, children in the "high" physical activity trajectory presented low cortisol concentration; the magnitude of the regression coefficient was slightly larger in girls (β = -0.125; 95% confidence interval, -0.326 to 0.074) than boys (β = -0.051; 95% confidence interval, -0.196 to 0.09)., Conclusion: There was no clear association between physical activity and chronic stress in early childhood. Trajectories models suggest that higher activity throughout early childhood may positively impact chronic stress; however, more studies are needed to confirm that hypothesis.

To evaluate the relationship between the grandmother's maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) (first generation-G1), the BMI of the female members of the birth cohort of Pelotas/RS, Brazil, 1993 (second generation-G2) and the children of the cohort members (third generation-G3). a longitudinal study using data from the 1993 Pelotas/RS cohort. The maternal pre-pregnancy BMI of the mothers of the members (first generation-G1) was self-reported, and of the participants in the cohort (second generation-G2) was collected using weight and height in follow-ups prior to 22 years of age. Children from the third generation (G3) were included in this last follow-up (22 years) and anthropometric measurements were collected. The outcome was BMI-for-age z-score obtained using weight and height measures collected in every follow-up. Linear regression was performed with adjustment for possible confounding factors. The cohort's original sample consists of 5249 participants and 855 children (their first children). At 12 and 48 months, the average increase in BMI-for-age z-score of children of women with pre-pregnancy weight excess was 0.11 and 0.47 kg/m 2 , respectively, increasing to around 0.60 kg/m 2 in adolescence, reaching an average increase of 2.71 kg/m 2 in BMI at 22 years of age. The G2 pre-pregnancy weight excess was also associated with G3 BMI-for-age z-score [β = 0.43 kg/m 2 (95% CI 0.21; 0.65)]. Maternal pre-pregnancy weight excess was associated with the child's BMI-for-age z-score, in both G2 and G3, suggesting a proximal relationship, with no association between G1 and G3., (© 2022 World Obesity Federation.)