Dazza65 said...
Not too sure about this one. Do they offer an idea what a low birth weight is or just less than the standard? By taking it on face value they say any child born early or before 40 weeks will more likely suffer from diseases later in life as the birth weight of these babies will usually always be low(er). I think whats more important in the early stages of a babies life is;
-Health and dietry habits of birth mum
-Breastfeeding
This is how the newborn builds up its immunities given the babies own immune system can take some time to develop.
A lot of diseases we suffer later in life are usually hereditary or genetically derived.
BTW I was 6lb 9oz or 3kg
If its the same program I saw, I think they were saying that the nutrition received while in the womb was strongly linked to birthweight, which was then linked to a predisposition to diabetes and other problems.
They suggest that good nutrition, regardless of the mother's own weight, resulted in higher birthweights, which also made the babies less likely to have diabetes in later life.
In one instance they compared the birthweights of children born in a famine period and their later health, against children from the same parents born later, when there was no longer a famine. They found this was a reasonable way to compare, as the genetic component would be similar given that they were from the same parents.
