Having siblings promotes a more healthy weight status-Whereas only children are at greater risk for higher BMI in later childhood.

BACKGROUND: Birth order and having at least one sibling are known to be associated with an increased risk for development of overweight. However, there are no studies assessing pre- and postnatal factors for developing overweight within families. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyse the association of the mother's weight gain during pregnancy, prepregnancy BMI, mother's age at birth, breastfeeding, age gap between siblings, and physical activity together with sibling-related characteristics on the development of overweight in children and adolescents. METHODS: Data were obtained from the longitudinal LIFE Child cohort. The study sample included n = 1932 children, stratified into first-born (n = 578), second-born (n = 608), third-or-later-born single-born siblings (n = 162), only children (n = 526), and twin children (n = 58). Children with chronic or syndromic diseases, born prematurely or from mothers with gestational diabetes were excluded. Data were adjusted for multiple children per family using mixed models. Pregnancy weight gain, prepregnancy BMI and mother's age were considered prenatal co-variates. Postnatal factors included the duration of breastfeeding and the children's physical activity level. RESULTS: Particularly until the onset of puberty, the BMI-SDS differed between single-born siblings, only children and twins, and increased with birth order. Compared to children with siblings, only children exhibited a strong increase in BMI-SDS starting at age nine. A higher age gap between siblings was associated with a higher BMI-SDS in second- and third-or-later-born children. Single-born siblings had the highest rate and duration of breastfeeding. Physical activity was highest in twins and third-or-later-born children and lowest in only children. In a multivariate model, being an only child showed a highly significant association with BMI-SDS. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that siblings had a lower BMI-SDS than only children did. For single-born siblings, the association between birth order and increased BMI-SDS seemed to persist only up to 11 years of age.

Birth weight increases with birth order despite decreasing maternal pregnancy weight gain.

AIM: We investigated whether birth order is an influencing factor for birth weight independent from maternal factors. METHODS: Data were obtained from the longitudinal cohort study LIFE Child and included 1864 children, of which 526 were only children. The 1338 siblings were ranked into first-borns (n = 570), second-borns (n = 606) and third-or-later-borns (n = 162). Children born prematurely, suffering from chronic or syndromic diseases, were excluded. We performed intra-family comparisons to reduce bias and assessed the impact of perinatal parameters, such as birth order on birth weight, using mixed models. RESULTS: Birth weight increased with birth order. In univariate analyses, birth order had a significant effect on birth weight-SDS with second-borns having 0.29 SDS (app. 130 g) and third-borns 0.40 SDS (app. 180 g) higher values than first-borns (P < .001). Maternal pregnancy weight gain was associated with higher birth weight-SDS (P < .01) in univariate analysis, though maternal pregnancy weight gain was lower for higher birth orders. Multivariate analyses revealed that being a second or third-or-later-born child had a stronger impact on birth weight than all maternal factors. CONCLUSION: Birth order must be considered a potential risk factor for higher birth weight. Maternal pregnancy weight gain is not the driving factor for higher birth weight in siblings.