Drinking small amounts of caffeine during pregnancy may affect your child’s height, study suggests

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File – A pregnant woman holds a coffee cup with an undated file image. (Photo by Bildquelleullstein bild of her via Getty Images)

Even if only slightly caffeine Consumption during pregnancy can affect a child’s height, according to a recently published analysis by researchers at the US National Laboratory. health.

Pregnancy has all sorts of recommendations on what to avoid. It is known that high caffeine can harm a baby in the womb.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends: Pregnant women should limit caffeine intake to less than 200 milligrams per day. That’s the equivalent of two 6 ounce cups of coffee.

Previous studies link Moderate coffee consumption during pregnancy to low birth weight and others with poor birth outcomes, while others have not found such risks.

New research published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that children of women with low caffeine intake during pregnancy were, on average, slightly shorter than children born to women who avoided caffeine completely during pregnancy. .

The height difference was observed at age 4 and persisted until at least 8, according to the researchers.

Findings were even reported in children of pregnant women who consumed on average less than 50 mg of caffeine per day, well below current guidelines.

“Our findings suggest that even low caffeine intake during pregnancy may have long-term effects on a child’s growth,” said study author Katherine Grantz, Ph.D. “Importantly, the height differences we observed were small, less than an inch, and further research is needed to determine whether these differences affect children’s health.” .

Analysis suggests that even low maternal caffeine intake may affect children’s growth

A team led by Grantz and Dr. Jessica Gleason of the Division of Population Health Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the NIH investigated caffeine and its breakdown products in blood samples from more than 2,400 pregnant women. We analyzed the concentration of paraxanthine, which is Two previous studies of women.

They looked for correlations between maternal caffeine consumption and children’s height, weight, BMI and obesity risk. They also accounted for several other factors that may influence a child’s growth, including maternal height, pre-pregnancy weight, and smoking.

In one study of 788 children, children born to women with the highest caffeine intake were, on average, 1.5 centimeters (0.59 inches) shorter than women whose mothers drank the least caffeine. Pregnant women in this study consumed less than 50 mg of caffeine per day on average.

In the second study the team analyzed, children participating in the study in the 1960s and 1970s were measured regularly from birth to age 8, allowing researchers to track changes in height over time. is ready.

After age 4, children of women with the highest caffeine intake were shorter in stature than children born to women in the lowest caffeine intake group. from 8 years old to 2.2 cm (0.87 inches), researchers say. In this study, pregnant participants’ caffeine consumption averaged about 200 mg per day.

This study is observational and cannot prove that one thing causes another.

“The correlations observed in this study can be explained by the presence of common causes of both caffeine consumption and growth restriction, such as poverty, stress and dietary factors.” Dr. Gavin Pereira said, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Curtin University, Australia. Pereira was not involved in his research.

“A healthy, balanced diet is the best strategy.”

Dr Alex Poliakoff, a Melbourne-based clinical associate professor, obstetrician, gynecologist and fertility specialist, advises avoiding caffeine completely, as it is found in small amounts in beverages and foods other than coffee. is possible, but may be difficult to achieve. .

Polyakov was also not involved in the research.

“A healthy, balanced diet is the best strategy, and small amounts of coffee are highly unlikely to cause significant harm to pregnant women or their offspring,” Poliakov said in a statement.

“Advice to unnecessarily restrict a pregnant woman’s diet is actually counterproductive and can create anxiety and guilt if the woman fails to follow it.” If drinking coffee improves your health, it means that drinking it does little harm.”

This story was reported from Cincinnati.