Your baby's birthday is obviously a very special day — but a new study by Columbia University has found that it could also have important implications for your baby's health to boot.
Researchers reached this conclusion by examining 1.7 million patients treated between 1985 and 2013, comparing what ailed them with the month they were born. They found that a baby's birth month was significantly associated to their risk of 55 diseases, including ADHD, asthma and heart disease.
Overall? Babies born in May have the lowest risk of disease, while babies born in October have the highest.
From there, the researchers also pinned the months linked most often to certain diseases. Asthma, for instance, was more prevalent in babies born in October and July; ADHD in November.
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All that said, this doesn't mean that babies born in "unhealthy" months are doomed by any means, or that babies born in "healthy" moms are off the hook.
According to study senior author Nicholas Tatonetti, an assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center, "The risk related to birth month is relatively minor when compared to more influential variables like diet and exercise.”
In other words, while birth timing may matter a bit, how you raise your kids still matters much more.
Was your baby born during a "good" month or "bad"? Are you worried?
Image via karen roach/shutterstock
