Birth weight

Birth weight is the body weight of a baby at its birth. The average birth weight in babies of European heritage is 3.5 kilograms (7.7 lb), though the range of normal is between 2.5 kilograms (5.5 lb) and 5 kilograms (11 lb) (all but 5% of newborns will fall into this range). Babies of south Asian and Chinese heritage weigh about 240 grams (0.53 lb) less.

There have been numerous studies that have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to show links between birth weight and later-life conditions, including diabetes, obesity, tobacco smoking and intelligence. Low birth weight is associated with neonatal infection.

There are basically two distinct determinants for birth weight:

The incidence of birth weight being outside what is normal is influenced by the parents in numerous ways, including:

Studies have been conducted to investigate how a person's birth weight can influence aspects of their future life. This includes theorised links with obesity, diabetes and intelligence.

A baby born small or large for gestational age (either of the two extremes) is thought to have an increased risk of obesity in later life, but it was also shown that this relationship is fully explained by maternal weight.

GH therapy at a certain dose induced catch-up of lean body mass (LBM). However percentage body fat decreased in the GH-treated subjects. Bone mineral density SDS measured by DEXA increased significantly in the GH-treated group compared to the untreated subjects, though there is much debate over whether or not SGA (small for gestational age) is significantly adverse to children to warrant inducing catch-up.

Babies that have a low birth weight are thought to have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in later life.

Some studies have shown a direct link between an increased birth weight and an increased intelligence quotient. Increased birth weight is also linked to greater risk of developing autism.

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