Depressed Mums May Have Shorter Children — Study

Depression is hardly associated with a positive effect on the human body. In a recent study, however, researchers have further found that mothers’ mood rub off on the children both mentally and physically.

In the study published September 10 in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that children whose mothers had depressive symptoms during the first nine months after birth are more likely to be shorter that their peers.

The researchers studied data on 6,500 kids who were participating in the U.S. Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort from 2001 to 2007, and analysed the heights of children at three different periods: nine months, at age four and again when they were five or six, approximately kindergarten age.