Effectiveness of nutritional counseling with overweight pregnant women on child growth at 6 months: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Studies that have investigated the effect of nutritional counseling during the prenatal period on the follow-up outcomes of children at 6 mo have produced inconclusive results. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of nutritional counseling, based on the NOVA food classification, encouraging the consumption of fresh and minimally processed foods, with overweight adult pregnant women on infant growth at 6 mo of age.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial with 195 pairs of pregnant overweight women and their infants at 6 mo of age was conducted in a Brazilian municipality. The pregnant women were allocated to the control group (CG) or intervention group (IG) at the beginning of the pregnancy. The IG received three sessions of nutrition counseling throughout the pregnancy. Linear regression models were used to investigate the effect of the nutritional counseling on infant growth.

Results: One hundred ninety-five mother-infant pairs with complete data were included (96 CG, and 99 IG). The mean ± SD infant weight (g) at 6 mo was 7856.1 ± 1.1, and length (cm) was 67.0 ± 2.9. There were no differences in maternal and newborn characteristics between the groups. In the linear regression models, the counseling had no effect on anthropometric parameters of the infants at 6 mo of age: weight-for-length Z-score (β 0.089 [95% CI -0.250; 0.427], P = 0.61); length-for-age Z-score (β 0.032 [95% CI -0.299; 0.363], P = 0.85); weight-for-age Z-score (β 0.070 [95% CI -0.260; 0.400], P = 0.68); BMI-age Z-score (β 0.072 [95% CI -0.270; 0.414], P = 0.68).

Conclusions: There was no effect on infant growth at 6 mo of age after the nutritional counseling during pregnancy. Future studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.