Problems With Babies Born in Winter May Come Down to Economics
Categories: Babies, Pregnancy & Birth, Money & Work, Development, In The News, Weird But True, Education
Babies born in the winter months may be affected by the economic status of their parents Credit: EJP Photo, Flickr
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?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SKL 9-29-2009 @ 12:21PM
I have a winter baby, who was born to a poor single mom, and she is extremely bright. I have a brother who was a winter baby, the second, wanted child of my married parents, and he had social and minor physical issues, but a gifted IQ. On the other hand, my brother's wife, also a winter baby, had 3 kids with her first husband, all winter babies (first born when mom was 15), and 2 of them have had various problems, including low IQ and various social / behavioral issues.
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Melissa 9-29-2009 @ 12:57PM
My daughter was due in the spring (April), but was premature and born in the winter (February, kind of the end of winter). I am a 30 year old single mom, am not a millionaire, work full time, and the only health problem she had was her asthma, which is normal because I have asthma and so does her father. She is the smartest one in her class (beyond her peers in most areas, her teacher told me), one of the tallest, and is a very happy child. My very good friend was a teen mom with her first one, and was almost 21 when she had her 2nd baby, one is a winter baby and the other is a spring baby, and they are both smart, beautiful children, and no health problems. She is married, and is a stay at home mom. So this research is ridicoulous.
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Uly 9-30-2009 @ 9:11AM
Yes, Melissa, your random, unsubstantiated anecdotes can overturn actual research and studies. Your two examples can not possibly be exceptions, no, they have to be the rule.
Kathryn 10-04-2009 @ 12:17AM
Ultimately, I don't think there's much science to comparing successfulness with seasons. There are just too many uncontrolable variables that are intensely critical factors, like this unwed teenage mother business. It's like asking if your favourite colour affects your career.
What if the winter baby is a first born, which says they are supposed to be suceessful? do these factors cancel each other?
The research has apparently ignored the critical point that a baby is 100% genetically traceable. Are these supposed health problems caused by the season of their birth? or by two genetically defected parents? do the poor test skills possibly result by lack of parental attention? Did Mom and Dad ever help them study? Did the parents graduate high school?
I was born Dec 22. spent two years at an Ivy League school, left because I realized I hate school, and at age 20 I earn over 100 k per year.
My mother stayed at home to raise me, my father owned a small chain of self-started stores. I spent Sundays with my grandmotherwho lived nearby, and a week in the summer with the grandparents who lived far away. I went to private school, non-religious, with very small classes and a loose dress code.
I have a few health problems...but they're genetic. It irritates me to think that my problems are being counted as a factor of my winter birth when I'd have them if i was born in June.
I never knew winter babies were supposed to be "disadvantaged" until I stumbled upon this.
I think kids who live in a nurturing, stable environment grow up happier and want to maintain their happiness by acheiving educational and financial success.
The only way I can see to really identify is to have one mother who uses In-Vitro, whose eggs develop identical twins, have one of the twins in winter and one in summer. You'd have to have the same genetic child born twice to really, honestly say the season of their birth has any bearing on their future. And even in the case of twins, they often have radically different personalities which would destroy a lot of evidence pertaining to testing and career choice. (That's another thing--WHY do they earn less? I earn a lot because I talk people into giving me their money. Maybe somebody else born in winter has a kind heart and works for a non-profit, automatically bumping their income down to 30-50k?) My personal story may not debunk the "research"...but I think it gives me a say. My fifth grade science fair project made me rule out more incontrolable variables than this "study".
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