Children born by C-section have a higher risk of childhood obesity

A large-scale 2016 study which looked at more than 22,000 young adults found that those born by C-section were 15% more likely to become obese than those delivered vaginally; between siblings, those born by cesarean were 64% more likely to be obese.

Findings from a new Canadian study add to the growing body of research that suggests children who are delivered via a cesarean section are at a greater risk of obesity than those delivered vaginally, possibly due to differences in gut bacteria.

Carried out by researchers at the University of Alberta, the study looked at 935 mother-child pairs to investigate how the type of infant delivery could influence a child's risk of obesity, in particular in those children born to overweight mothers.