First-borns more likely to develop asthma and allergies
29 May 2008,
12:00am
First-born infants and those with mothers who suffer stress in pregnancy are more likely to develop asthma and allergies, according to two studies presented to the American Thoracic Society.
Researchers from the University of California conducted tests on 1,200 newborns from the Isle of Wight in England. They found that first-borns were more likely to carry a gene variant that increased their risk of allergy. In a study by Harvard Medical School, similar gene variants were found to occur in the blood of children of stressed mothers, linking emotional stress to the development of a baby's immune system.
