title: Maternal birthweight and diet in pregnancy in relation to the infant's thinness at birth.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine how maternal diet in pregnancy and parental body size and birthweight influence an infant's thinness at birth measured by a low ponderal index.
  
  
  METHODS
  An observational study of newborn infants and their parents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Southampton, England.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five hundred and thirty-eight infants born at term.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ponderal index at birth.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women who had a high intake of carbohydrate in early pregnancy and a low intake of dairy protein in late pregnancy tended to have infants that were thin at birth (P = 0.01 and P = 0.03, respectively, in a simultaneous analysis). Women who themselves had a low birthweight also tended to have thin infants, ponderal index falling from 28.3 kg/m3 to 26.2 kg/m3 as the women's birthweights decreased from more than 4.0 kg to 2.5 kg or less (P < 0.0001). Tall fathers had thin infants, but ponderal index was not related to the women's heights or the fathers' birthweights.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These associations may reflect constraints on placental development imposed by a woman's nutrition in pregnancy and during her own intrauterine life. Effects of the father's height may be mediated through genetic influences on skeletal growth.
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council Environmental Epidemiology Unit (University of Southampton), Southampton General Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Godfrey
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Osmond
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001724:Birth Weight; D001824:Body Constitution; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004032:Diet; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D009929:Organ Size; D010920:Placenta / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011247:Pregnancy; D013851:Thinness
chemical_list: D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates; D004044:Dietary Proteins