OBJECTIVETo investigate whether breastfeeding can reduce the risk of childhood overweight in the offspring of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

METHODSFollow-up was performed on 1189 offspring of mothers with GDM between January 2003 and December 2009. The influence of the manner and duration of breastfeeding between 0 to 3 months after birth on the risk of childhood overweight in the offspring of mothers with GDM was analyzed by logistic regression.

RESULTSAfter correcting confounding factors such as pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, gestational blood sugar, sex, birth weight, age and farther's body weight, it was found that the risk of childhood overweight in the offspring who received exclusive breastfeeding during the first 3 months after birth was lower than in the artificial feeding group (OR: 0.479, 95%CI: 0.256-0.897). Offspring who were breastfed for 0 to 3 months, 4 to 6 months and over 6 months had a lower risk of childhood overweight than the artificial feeding group (OR: 0.456, 95%CI: 0.233-0.827; OR: 0.29, 95%CI: 0.103-0.817; OR: 0.534, 95%CI: 0.280-0.970), offspring who were breastfed for 4 to 6 months had a lower risk of childhood overweight than those who were breastfed for 0 to 3 months (OR: 0.372, 95%CI: 0.129-0.874), and offspring who were breastfed for more than 6 months did not show significantly lower risk of overweight than those who were breastfed for less than 6 months (OR: 0.769, 95%CI: 0.470-1.258).

CONCLUSIONSWithin 3 months of birth, breastfeeding, especially exclusively, may reduce the risk of childhood overweight in the offspring of mothers with GDM. Within 6 months of birth, the risk of childhood overweight decreases as the duration of breastfeeding increases, but prolonging the duration of breastfeeding cannot necessarily reduce the risk of childhood overweight after postnatal six months.