Thanks for the hair, Mom
I write about medical research for a living, so I’ve come across my fair share of unusual studies and findings. I have to admit being pretty surprised, though, when I read this morning about a Johns Hopkins study looking at the connection between a mom’s heartburn and her baby’s hair. The resesarchers set out to disprove the old wives’ tale (which I had never heard of) that women who experience heartburn during pregnancy will have babies with full heads of hair – yet the findings actually backed up the old adage. (Out of 28 women who reported moderate to severe heartburn, 23 had babies with average or above-average amounts of hair; out of 12 women who reported no heartburn, only two had babies with lots of hair.) The link – which has something to do with the hormones that cause heartburn – seems pretty bizarre to me, but I guess it could be valid. After all, I had fairly bad heartburn during the last trimester – and Zoe now has a nice big head of hair (as shown in this pic from earlier today).
Zoe, I think you owe me one!!
-M
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February 22nd, 2007 13:24
How ironic-just yesterday morning my coworker was suffering from nausea–of course we were teasing that she was pregnant. By afternoon, she was complaining of heartburn–she was then told her baby would have lots of hair! Wives’ tales may not always be true–but some may not be so far fetched after all!
February 22nd, 2007 14:59
What were you doing during pregnancy to cause that double chin?
February 22nd, 2007 15:04
Eating Snickers bars. It’s all about the Snickers.