Much as we swoon over just how gorgeously tiny newborn babies are, the fact is that birth weight in babies have been increasing steadily over the last decade or so.
And now science has come up with a potential explanation as to why babies have grown in size over the last couple of generations.
Researchers at Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health found an association between Bisphenol A, or BPA, exposure in pregnant women and fat levels in their children by age 7. The report was published Tuesday online in
Environmental Health Perspectives.
The study tested urine samples in 369 mother and child pairs from the ongoing inner city New York cohort study by CCCAH. The mothers, and then the children at ages 3 and 5 had urine tests. Then testing including biomedical index Z-score (BMIZ) at ages 5 and 7, then fat mass index, percent body fat and waist circumferences at age 7. After they adjusted for socioeconomic and environmental factors, the researchers found that children that were exposed to higher levels of BPA had more body fat.
What this means, it that contact with endocrine disruptors begins before your children are even born and the affects can follow them for a lifetime, possibly affecting how their fat cells are formed as they develop. How scary a thought is that?
Oh, and alarmingly, there was a stronger association between BPA exposure and mass index and waist circumference in girls.
BPA has been known for a while now to be an endocrine disrupting chemical, also known as a hormone hacker, meaning it plays havoc with your hormones, causing everything from weight gain , sleep disorders, depression, and a weakened immune system. To mention a few.
A few years back, BPA was banned in baby bottles and sippy cups after other studies had linked the chemical to infertility, obesity, diabetes, early puberty, behavioral changes in children and even some cancers. It is still allowed for use in other popular consumer product, however, such as ood cans and polycarbonate plastic containers.
Were YOU aware this chemical is so harmful to your health? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @Herfamilydotie 
