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Sydney: Lower birth
weight and poor diet in childhood can lead to poor learning and
behaviour in children, particularly girls, according to a new
study.
Researchers from Australia's Monash University and Taiwan's
National Defence Medical Centre as well as the National Health
Research Institute, found girls with lower birth weight
experienced a greater inability to learn and weaker overall
competence than girls of normal birth weight.
The study linked the national birth registry to Taiwan's Nutrition
and Health Survey to examine possible relationships between lower
birth weight, childhood diet and learning outcomes in children
between six and 13 years old, the journal Research in
Developmental Disabilities reports.
Co-author Mark Wahlqvist, emeritus professor from Monash
University's Asia Pacific Health, said the findings suggested
girls' cognitive and social development was susceptible to birth
weight and quality of diet, according to a Monash statement.
"We found girls with a birth weight less than 2,700 grams were
more likely to show an inability to learn, have relationship
problems, were unhappy and socially impaired," Wahlqvist said.
"It is not only the diet during childhood, but also that of the
mother and probably the father, reflected in birth weight that may
affect a child's learning ability," he added.
The researchers found that although there were major differences
in the results between girls with lower birth weight and those
with normal birth weight, there were no significant differences
among boys.
"Fortunately, it seems possible that a nutritionally deprived low
birth weight girl is not irreversibly committed to neuro-developmental
impairment if a quality diet is available after birth," Wahlqvist
said.
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