children s health issues
Large for Gestational Age (LGA) Newborns
Causes of LGA Newborns
Large newborns may be healthy babies who simply are large because their parents are large. However, certain problems in the mother sometimes cause babies to be large for gestational age. Themost common causeof LGA newborns is Diabetes During Pregnancy None Other risk factorsfor having LGA newborns include Maternal Obesity None Having had previous LGA babies Genetic abnormalities or syndromes (for example, Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome or Sotos syndrome) Excessive weight gain during pregnancy (the fetus gets more calories as the mother gains more weight) The reason for excessive growth of the fetus varies but primarily results from an abundance of nutrients combined with hormones in the fetus that stimulate growth. In pregnant people who have poorly controlled diabetes, a large amount of sugar (glucose) crosses the placenta (the organ that provides nourishment to the fetus), resulting in high levels of glucose in the fetus’s blood. The high levels of glucose trigger the release of increased amounts of the hormoneinsulinfrom the fetus’s pancreas. The increased amount ofinsulinresults in accelerated growth of the fetus, including almost all organs except the brain, which grows normally. 