Children
born to women who drink milk during pregnancy are more likely to be tall when
they are teenagers, new research shows.
A team of
scientists who tracked babies born in the late eighties found their height
during adolescence was directly related to how much milk their mothers consumed
when they were in the womb.
Although
maternal milk intake has long been thought to promote growth in newborn babies,
the latest research suggests the benefits last well into early adulthood.
Nutrition
experts from Iceland, Denmark and the U.S. wanted to see if the benefits seen
in the early stages of life from milk were extended into later years.
They
tracked babies born to 809 women in Denmark in 1988 and 1989, after monitoring
how much milk the women had consumed during the pregnancy.
The
babies were measured for weight and birth length and tthen followed up again
almost 20 years later.
The
results, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show
teenagers of both sexes were generally taller if their mothers had drunk more
than 150 millilitres - roughly a quarter of a pint of milk - a day during the
pregnancy, compared to children born to women who drank less than that amount.
By their
late teens they also had higher levels of insulin in their bloodstream, suggesting
they were less at risk of getting type two diabetes.
In a
report on the findings researchers said: ‘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.’
Earlier
this year British scientists found pregnant women could boost their babies’ IQ
by drinking more milk because it is rich in iodine.
They
looked at more than 1,000 pregnant women and found those who consumed lower
amounts of iodine - which is also found in other dairy products and fish - were
more likely to have children with lower IQs and reading abilities.
Iodine is
essential for producing hormones made by the thyroid gland, which has a direct
effect on the development of the foetal brain.
