Smarter Taller Kids

Hey older mom, feeling a bit guilty about being an older mom? Not so fast!

This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.

There are well-known health risks for babies associated with being born to a mother who is older. Particularly when she’s over the magic age of 35.

However, researchers from the London School of Economics wondered:
Does when a child is born outweigh the negative outcomes of being born to an over-35 mom?
Are there potential benefits to being born later in history?

To find out, they studied Swedes born between nineteen-sixty and nineteen-ninety-one, including siblings. The team analyzed education, height, and physical fitness.
Results? Children born to older moms were taller AND obtained more education than their older siblings. That’s because later-born children had the benefit of better medicine and more modern social ideas.

For children born in the same birth year, there were no such advantages to having an older mom.

Which suggests that as long as height and education improve with time, delaying having kids will benefit them.

That’s why I waited! It wanted a kid who would get both a basketball and a math scholarship. And you’re welcome, kids!