Study finds just half a cup of coffee a day during pregnancy can make a child nearly an inch shorter
- Drinking coffee during pregnancy can have a big impact on your child’s height
- Studies have shown that 0.5 cups a day can reduce a child’s height by 1.5 cm.
- Scientists aren’t sure why caffeine has such an effect on children’s health
- Caffeine poses many risks and is best avoided during pregnancy
Official research suggests that drinking just one cup of coffee a day during pregnancy can reduce your child’s height by nearly an inch.
Minors born to women who consumed 50 mg of caffeine daily were 2 cm (0.8 in) smaller than women of their age by the age of eight.
This finding remained even after adjusting for other factors that influence a child’s height, such as maternal age, smoking status, and income.
According to researchers, results based on an analysis of 2,500 men and women across the United States suggest that expectant mothers should avoid coffee altogether.
At the present time US guidelines Pregnant women are advised to limit their daily intake to about 200mg. An average 8oz cup of coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine.
Caffeine is thought to constrict blood vessels in the uterus and placenta, which can reduce blood supply to the fetus and impede development.
This study is the first, not an unreliable study, to use a blood test to measure caffeine intake in pregnant women.
Children born to mothers who drank about half a cup of coffee each day were on average shorter than their peers, according to a new study (file photo).
The result was published in a magazine Jama Network Open.
Researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Maryland followed children born between 2009 and 2013 until they were eight years old.
Mother-infant pairs recruited for this study were divided into four groups based on the amount of caffeine consumed by the mother during pregnancy.
Plasma samples were taken from each mother during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy to determine how much caffeine she was drinking.
Plasma samples with 25.4 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) or less of caffeine detected were grouped into quartiles.
Mothers in the highest quartile had levels of 575.3 ng/mL or higher.
Researchers note that people in the 1st to 4th quartile only need about 50 mg of caffeine per day to consume.
After following the children for over eight years, researchers found a clear correlation between caffeine consumption and height.
The difference became apparent when the child was about 20 months old and widened as he grew.
By the age of 7, the difference in height between the lowest caffeine drinkers and the highest drinkers was an average of 1.5 cm.
By age 8 there was a difference of 2.3.
This was all after adjusting for race and maternal education, as well as other factors that may affect a child’s early height.
A similar correlation was not found for body mass index, indicating that exposure to caffeine in utero does not affect lifelong weight.
“Children of women with lower measured caffeine intake were shorter than children of women who did not consume caffeine during pregnancy,” the researchers wrote in their paper, in a historical cohort up to 8 years of age. The difference in height has increased.
“These findings suggest that maternal small daily caffeine consumption is associated with short stature in offspring that persists into childhood.”
There is limited information as to why caffeine exposure in utero and during childhood inhibits growth.
and 2021 study, Researchers have found that caffeine restricts blood vessels in the uterus and placenta, cutting off the blood supply to the fetus.
This resulted in a reduction in babies’ birth weight, although the long-term effects it might have on development were not identified.
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