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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the longitudinal changes in body composition of infants of women with NGT and GDM during the first year of life. We evaluated 192 infants (93 NGT, 99 GDM) from birth and again at 4 (n=130), 8 (n=138) and 12 (n=112) months of age, using total body electrical conductivity. The changes in body composition over time we evaluated by estimating the slope of each subject's follow-up (follow-up visits n=l-3) after birth and comparing the 2 groups using parametric ANOVA and ANCOVA. At birth there was no significant difference in weight (3258 ±516 vs. 3356 ±491 g, p=0.18) or lean body mass (LBM) (2930 ±385 vs. 2929 ±368g, p=0.99) but there was significantly greater fat mass (FM) and % body fat (%BF) in the infants of the GDM (328 ±183 vs. 426 ± 195g, p=0.004) and (9.6 ±4.4 vs. 12.3 ±4.5%, p=0.0001). At 4 and 8 months there was no significant difference in the increase in mean adjusted follow-up weight or LBM between groups. At 4 and 8 months there was significantly less increase in FM (p=0.03 and 0.05) and % BF (p=0.0003 and p=0.003) in the GDM vs. the NGT group. At 12 months the only significant difference between the groups was that the infants of the GDM had significantly less %BF compared with the NGT (14.9 ±7.0 vs. 17.9 ±5.4%, p=0.01). Overall there was an increase in weight (6527 ±968 vs. 6288 ±1174g, p=0.02), FM (2407 ±609 vs. 2233 ±781 g, p=0.0009) and %BF (17.9 ±5.5 vs. 15.0 ±6.9%, p=0.0001) but not LBM (4120 ±570 vs. 4054 ±544g, p=0.60) in the NGT vs. the GDM offspring during the entire period of study. These changes in FM and %BF over time were not altered after adjusting for ethnicity, smoking, breastfeeding or maternal education. We conclude that although the infants of the GDM have increased adiposity at birth, by 1 year of age, the infants of the NGT have gained greater weight because of an increase in FM but not LBM mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]