The birthdate of your child might be important in helping him or her grow up to be a healthy adult, according to Yahoo News.
The exposure to sunlight during the summer may reportedly contribute to this phenomenon, according to scientists in Cambridge, England, who came to the conclusion after looking at data from nearly half a million people in the United Kingdom.
When women are exposed to more sunlight in the second trimester of pregnancy, they reportedly get a higher dose of vitamin D.
Babies born in the summer months had a healthier birth weight, height and age of puberty, according to the news outlet KSL.com. Babies born in June, July and August specifically were reportedly more often a healthy birth weight.
“It’s hard not to consider this positive reason to have a baby in the summer,” Dr. Sherry Ross, an OB/GYN based in Santa Monica, Calif., tells Yahoo Parenting.
“With the way we plan our entire lives now, parents might try to control this, too.”
Babies born in the summer also reportedly tend to be taller, according to the study. The benefits of being taller reportedly come down to socioeconomic factors, as taller people tend to earn more, get more promotions, more dates and are asked to fill more leadership positions, according to research.
“There are hundreds of factors that determine your future health and there are millions of things that influence birth weight [and] height.. Keep in mind it is complicated, but it is an interesting piece of the jigsaw puzzle of biology,” stated Dr. John Perry, lead study author.
Despite the findings of the recent study, parents shouldn’t stress about timing, as there are other ways to get the benefits of summer even when it’s not that time of season.
“Pregnant and breastfeeding women are advised to take a small vitamin D supplement — 400 international units — and we encourage better awareness of and compliance with that advice,” explained Dr. Ken Ong, pediatrician at the University of Cambridge MRC Epidemiology Unit and co-author of the study.
