Maternal Milk Consumption During Pregnancy Influences Height of Offspring

An international study has found that women who regularly drink a glass of milk during their pregnancy give birth to children who are on average taller than their peers during their adolescence. The study was conducted by researchers from Iceland, Denmark and the US who observed babies born to 809 women in Denmark between 1988 and 1989 and recorded the amount of milk that the mothers consumed during their pregnancy period. The babies’ weight and height were recorded at birth and compared with the data 20 years later.

The researchers found that mothers who drank 150 milliliters of milk every day during their pregnancies gave birth to babies who were on average taller than children born to mothers who drank less than 150 milliliters of milk in a day while the children also had higher levels of insulin in their bloodstream, thereby reducing their risk of diabetes.

“Maternal milk consumption may have a growth-promoting effect with respect to weight and length at birth. These results also provide some suggestion that this effect may even track into early adult age”, the researchers wrote in their report.



Source-Medindia