Babies’ failure to thrive “not linked to poverty”

Babies who fail to thrive are just as likely to be from rich
families as poor, according to new research.

But babies whose parents are short, or who are born into large
families, do gain weight more slowly than others. The findings come
from 11,700 infants who are part of the Bristol-based longitudinal
study children of the 90s.

It had been suggested in the past that low socio-economic status
was associated with poor growth in the first nine months of life,
but this study found no such association. Instead there was a
strong correlation between parental height and slow weight gain. A
mother’s fourth child was twice as likely to fail to thrive
as firstborn children.

More information from www.alspa.bristol.ac.uk