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Problems With Babies Born in Winter May Come Down to Economics

Filed under: Your Pregnancy, Work Life, In The News, Weird But True, Research Reveals: Babies

tree in winter

Babies born in the winter months may be affected by the economic status of their parents Credit: EJP Photo, Flickr

There's plenty of data to show that winter babies don't fare as well in life as children born in other seasons, but new research indicates that the strongest influence on snow babies may be economics.

Studies show that the odds are stacked against winter babes -- they test poorly, are less healthy, have shorter life spans, don't earn as much or get as far in school -- but there is plenty of debate about just why that is the case. Now, however, there may be definitive evidence that it all comes down to family background, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.

Economists Kasey Buckles and Daniel Hungerman at the University of Notre Dame examined birth-certificate data for 52 million children born between 1989 and 2001, and their work revealed that the percentage of children born to unwed mothers, teen moms and mothers who had not completed high school peaked in January.

Until now, research assumed that the background of kids born in the winter are the same as those of kids born in other seasons. It also suggested that there were other factors in play, according to the Journal.

Were kids born in the winter getting less sun -- and therefore less vitamin D? Were they less socially mature because they were the oldest child in their kindergarten class? Or maybe, as stated in a study published in the medical journal Acta Pædriatica, winter babies had a higher rate of birth defects because there is a higher concentration of pesticides in surface water during the spring and summer, when they were conceived.

Buckles and Hungerman's data indicates that family background may be the single biggest influence on the failure of winter babies to do as well as their peers born in warmer months. If winter babies are born to less educated, less economically stable parents, it is natural to assume that they won't fare as well, according to the Journal.

Did you have a winter baby, and does this research reflect your experiences as a mother?

Related: 13-Year-Old Prodigy in College, Some Names Mark Troublemakers

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