Moderate coffee consumption during pregnancy was not linked to lower IQs in children.
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An analysis was performed on medical records pertaining to 2,197 pregnant women, who had been surveyed as part of the Collaborative Perinatal Project over a period of 25 years (between 1959 and 1979).
Pregnant women might not have to give up coffee completely! It’s okay to indulge in your morning cup of coffee without worrying about it affecting your child’s IQ, a new study finds.
Maternal Caffeine Intake During Pregnancy and Child Cognition and Behavior at 4 and 7 Years of Age. However, the researchers found no associations between their mother’s caffeine intake and these occurrences of obesity.
They compared those levels to the child’s IQ and behaviour at the age of four and then again at seven.
The study is being touted as one of its kind that focused on how caffeine exposure in the womb affects a child’s future intelligence (IQ) and behavior later in life. Pregnant women are often advised not to consume coffee during pregnancy as it may harm their unborn baby’s intellect.
The investigation let scientists look at a wide range of caffeine intakes as if the study was done today.
Th study appeared in the journal Epidemiology. Researchers were particularly interested in a chemical called paraxanthine, a central nervous stimulant. Dr. Klebanoff and Sarah Keim, PhD, co-author and principal investigator in the Center for Biobehavioral Health at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s, published a study in Epidemiology in March 2015 involving the same group of women from The Collaborative Perinatal Project and found that increased ingestion of caffeine during pregnancy did not increase the risk of childhood obesity. However, of the children involved in the CPP, about 11 percent were considered obese at age 4 and about 7 percent at age 7.
In addition, the has stated that it considers moderate caffeine consumption – defined as less than 200 milligrams per day, the amount in about one or two cups of coffee – to be safe during pregnancy.
Furthermore, caffeine increases the mother’s blood pressure and heart rate, which is not recommended during pregnancy. Surprisingly, Dr Klebanoff and colleagues found no associations between the occurrences of kids’ obesity and their mother’s caffeine intake during pregnancy.
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According to a new study, an occasional cup of coffee taken by pregnant women does not affect the intelligence or behavior of children in the long run, the Columbus dispatch reports.
