Eating your way to a boy?
Thu Apr 24, 2008 at 06:17:24 AM PDT
There's an column in the Washington Post today that brings up a subject that is intriguing to me.
Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter and her colleagues studied 740 women who were pregnant for the first time.The more calories they consumed in the year before they got pregnant the greater their chances of ending up with a boy. Fifty-six percent of the women who ate the most calories had boys compared to 45 percent of those who consumed the least, the researchers reported this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
When the researchers examined exactly what the women ate, those who tended to eat cereal for breakfast were the most likely to have a boy. That's right: A big bowl of cereal. Same goes for potassium and salt -- providing support for those old wives tales.
Since I have one daughter and one son, this made me try to think back about my eating habits prior to each of their conceptions.
I think it is possible that I ate more calories after DD and before DS. I had a toddler to chase around that I didn't have previously. But, I'm not and have never been a cereal eater. Do granola bars count?
My son was the first male in my family in 30+ years when he was born. (The last male was my only male cousin.) So I really had expected a second DD. The sonogram was a big shock to us and quite useful too as I wasn't planning on even bothering to choose a boy name.
We are now anxiously awaiting the birth of my "niecephew" who is due in early May. I'm going to try to refrain from pestering my sister now about her eating habits prior to pregnancy. But I think I will ask her about it after the baby is born.
Do you think that your experiences fit in with this study? If you were to have another child, would this study have any effect on your diet?
Note: I am in no way advocating boys over girls or suggesting in any way the girls are less valuable. Situations in some parts of the world regarding the status of baby girls distresses me greatly. Personally, I did not care if I had a girl or boy. However, I know a family that had 5 boys before having the girl that they really wanted for their family and I find the whole topic to be interesting.
