Parenting

11 Surprising Facts About Babies Born During the Summer

ParentingPublished Jul 22, 2014
By Jeanne Sager
baby floating pool iStock.com/katrinaelena

If you've got a summer baby, welcome to the club! There are more babies born in the summer in America than any other season. It's certainly not a bad time to give birth -- less fears of germs getting your baby sick and plenty of sunshiney days for backyard birthday parties when they're older. But what does having a baby in summertime mean for your child as they grow up?

Turns out the season when you were born can have a real effect on everything from your health to your personality! Check out what the scientists have found out about summer babies:

1. They're destined for mediocrity. Think your little Cancer or Leo is bound for the stars? Well, think again. When researchers from the University of British Columbia looked at the birth dates of the CEOs of some 375 S&P 500 companies, they found a shocking disparity. Turns out only 6.1 percent were born in June and 5.9 percent were born in July.

2. They're klutzier. Well, your little Junebug is, anyway. A report in the Journal of Sports Medicine shares findings that children born in the fall are better athletes than their peers, but especially better than babies born in April, May, and June.

3. They're less depressed. Sunshine really does equal a sunny, happy disposition, at least according to a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Scientists at Vanderbilt University looked at mice to determine that summer light cycles tended to reduce the risk of seasonal affective disorder (winter depression), bipolar depression, and schizophrenia for summer-borns and heighten it for winter-borns.

More from CafeMom: 10 Surprising Facts About Babies Born During the Winter

4. They're more likely to be dyslexic. According to a study published by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1993, early summer birth accounts for as much as 71 percent of cases of dyslexia.

5. They weigh less at birth. Not necessarily a bad thing! But big birth weight comes if you conceive -- rather than give birth -- during summer. Or so say Economists Janet Currie and Hannes Schwandt of Princeton University who looked at birth data for seasonal patterns. According to their research, moms who got pregnant any time between June and August gained more weight during their pregnancies and gave birth to infants who were, on average, about eight grams heavier than those born in other months.

facts about summer babies

6. They're smarter -- if they're female. When a neuroscientist at Columbia University Medical Center looked at the gray matter in the brains of winter-borns and summer-borns, he found that men born in June had less than their December counterparts. The women were the opposite! Summer-born women had more! Pair that with science that says thicker gray matter makes one smarter, and there you have it!

7. They're wild. Is your summer baby on the naughty side? Don't blame them! Blame their birthday! When researchers at Australia's Queensland University of Technology matched the birth months of nearly 5,000 kids ages 4 and 5 with their results from a behavioral screening questionnaire, they found the summer babies had a harder time with consideration of others, sharing, temperament, fidgeting, concentration, and ability to make friends. (Note: Because this study comes from Australia, summer birth is defined as November to January, while winter is May to July.) Their guess is that moms who give birth in summer miss peak sunshine during their pregnancy, and the lack of vitamin D actually affects baby's temperament. 

8. They're at a (slightly) higher risk for celiac disease. You can blame all the talk about gluten intolerance on summer-borns, according to scientists out of Sweden who surmised that summer babies are typically introduced to solid foods in winter when viral infections are more prevalent. Apparently there's a possible link between early viral infections and one's risk of developing celiac disease.

9. They're optimists. When scientists in Britain and Sweden ran a survey, asking people to share their date of birth and then respond to 13 different statements about their belief in luck and their personality, they found winter-borns were more likely to give pessimistic answers, and summer-borns to do the opposite.

10. They have a higher risk of vision problems. A look at the birth dates of Israeli soldiers with myopia (better known as being near-sighted) found there was a 25 percent higher chance of having trouble seeing if you were born in June or July. Another study in Britain supported the findings.

11. They struggle in school. That is if they live in an area where the age cut-off for school is in or right around summer. Being the youngest in the class has been linked by numerous studies to problems in the early years in school -- from academics to being bullied.

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