THE PREDIABETIC SYNDROME. LARGE BABIES AND THE (PRE)DIABETIC FATHER*

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Abstract
Women in whom overt diabetes develops later in life are apt to produce large babies and stillbirths. In the series presented in this report over 60% of such women claimed babies who weighed more than 10 lbs. at birth. At present, the most favored explanation ascribes responsibility for this phenomenon to excess circulating growth hormone. New evidence is presented concerning the children of diabetic fathers which indicates that the birthweights of such children are above avg., whereas the stillbirth rate is not increased. These data suggest that the onus of production of large babies cannot be borne entirely by maternal factors, but must in part be an inherited phenomenon, linked in some way to the diabetic genetic constitution of either parent. The concept of the "prediabetic father" is thus born.