Mother's heartburn = baby's hair

[snopes]

Comment: When my daughter was born with a ton of hair, people kept asking
me if I had a lot of heartburn when I was pregnant. I did have a lot of
heartburn, but I figured that this was just an old wives tale (what can I
say? I'm a skeptic). However, I recently read a tidbit in Parenting
magazine (I'm pretty sure that was the one), which also made the claim
linking heartburn during pregnancy with babies being born with a lot of
hair. What do you know about this? Is there a link, or is it just an old
wives tale?

[zephyra]

What would be the science behind that?

[Loyhargil]

They did indeed read this in Parenting magazine. We saw it, too, and it piqued my interest, since I've had constant heartburn with my current pregnancy.


Apparently it comes from a Johns Hopkins University study. I'm having trouble finding a link to the Johns Hopkins study itself. When I run a search on that site, I am apparently "forbidden" from viewing any of the results.

But I've found links to Mens Health magazine and a New York Times article that corraborate the Parenting magazine cite.

The Mens Health article (in its entirety here) says this is the reason for the link:

Once in a while, science proves an old wives' tale true. Here's one: if a pregnant woman has heartburn frequently, she'll likely have a baby with lots of hair.

Really! But that doesn't mean heartburn causes hair growth—it means that the same hormonal state that can cause heartburn also triggers hair growth.

[We'veBeenHad]

I had horrific heartburn in the last trimester - but it wasn't, IMO, hormonal, it was that the baby's head was way up in my solar plexus. Ouch!! A single bite of food just wouldn't make it down and would cause some kind of reflux or whatever - and did it BURN! So I lived on two or three bites of food a day, a couple crackers, and rolaids. Lots and lots of rolaids. She was born with just a very light peach fuzz.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

My sister was born with hair long enough that the nurses tied a bow in it with gauze. My mother never had a day of heartburn. Nor did my sister (as another OWT would have it) lose all her hair.

Actually, all three of us were born with hair. My sister's was just the most noticeable (in part because it stood straight up--as well as being three inches long).

Seaboe

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by Seaboe Muffinchucker

My sister was born with hair long enough that the nurses tied a bow in it with gauze. My mother never had a day of heartburn. Nor did my sister (as another OWT would have it) lose all her hair.

DD's was thick and long; her nurses made spit curls in it with Vaseline. And I never had a day of heartburn during my pregnancy, either. DD didn't lose all her hair, but it did thin out noticeably, then grew back curly instead of straight.

[Chickee Daizy]

I had horrible heartburn when I was pregnant with my son. It was bad enough that for the last five months of pregnancy I would be up all night throwing up what could only be described as pure stomach acid. My son was born with almost no hair.

I am now five months pregnant with another son. The horrible heartburn has started again. I am pretty sure I'm going to have another bald baby...

[inkiemouse]

My mother had bad heartburn when she was pregnant with me, and let's just say I had to have my first professional hair cut before I was a year old.

Then she had some with my sister, who was basically bald until the age of two.


I have acid reflux disease. Let's see how this works out for my son.

[smackmac]

I had heartburn for the first time in my life with DS#1. His hair was thick and dark and didn't fall out.

Same thing with DS#2. Big thick dark head of hair and I got heartburn when I drank a glass of water.

Now my SIL had horrible heartburn with both her daughters and they were bald as cue balls when born.

[Phaedra]

I've heard this said for decades and I think it's a load of tosh.

I've had six children. Three were born with loads of hair and three were bald as a baboon's bum. I suffered heartburn with all of them but by far the worst was with my daughter and she was one of the baldies.

My latest grandchild was born a couple of weeks ago with long thick hair and his mum only got a few bouts of heartburn in the last three weeks.

Midwives and doctors I've asked about it told me heartburn was the growing womb putting pressure on the gastric sphincter resulting in reflux.

[missy_pooh_1997]

I had never heard this before. i got asked that all the time once both dd's were born though, b/c they both had tons of hair. I did have Hyperemesis and terrible heart burn, but I don't see how the 2 could be related.

[mrs.hi-c]

The munchkin was born with a whole head of 2-2 1/2 inch dark brown hair. It was enough that the nurse helping with the delivery was playing with it while the baby was coming out. I only had heartburn the last couple of weeks, but it was pretty mild. Maybe it was the hair...or maybe it was the Tropicana Grapefruit juice I craved throughout the pregnancy.

*little hijack*
Strangely enough, I haven't touched the stuff since February 5th...it just doesn't taste the same.