Pregnancy Heartburn = Hairy Baby?
An Old Wives Tale That’s True?
Heartburn makes many a pregnant woman miserable. And if you moan about it, people tell you that it means that your baby will have lots of hair. Because that’s totally going to make you feel better when your throat and stomach are burning up.
OK, babies with lots of hair are something to ooh and ahh over, all that beautiful fine, soft baby hair. (But bald babies are really cute too.)
A group of skeptical scientists researched a group of pregnant women, expecting to debunk the old wives tale that heartburn=newborn hair. Turns out that almost all women who had moderate or severe heartburn while pregnant gave birth to babies with above-average amounts of hair. And, the majority of women who didn’t suffer from heartburn had bald babies or babies with below-average amounts of hair.
How weird is that? Many old wives tales are absolute nonsense, but many do have a ring of truth, and this is one that I would never have believed could be true at all.
My son fits with what the scientists say: I don’t remember having heartburn when I was pregnant. My son was born with just a tiny amount of blond fuzz. That’s mom-speak for bald. But hey, it grew. He’s two with hockey hair now.
How about you? Did you have heartburn, and then did your baby have lots of hair?
And if you are pregnant, and clutching a bottle of antacid as you read this, does the prospect of a baby with lots of hair make you feel any better?
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Secret Mommy says...
Oh, I had the WORST heartburn when I was pregnant. I’d never had it before in my life, but as soon as it showed up I knew what it was. Ugh. It started around my 4th month and didn’t stop until the day after I gave birth. And my sweet little baby boy didn’t have much hair when he was born. Just a barely-there little dusting of soft brown hair. My sister had 3 children with FULL, dark, thick heads of hair and I think she only had heartburn with one pregnancy. Having said all this, however, I love old wives tales and did think while pregnant that I was gonna have a big ole’ hairy baby.
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Tiffany says...
I guess this wives tale didn’t work for me. I have been pregnant twice both times I had awful heartburn, to the point I couldn’t sleep at night and was popping tums like there were candy. but my twins (the first pregnancy) came out balder then a babies bottom and didn’t get hair until they were like 18 months old, my third boy had a tiny bit of hair but not much.He is two months old and still not much there. I finally shaved the twins hair off and that made it grow in nice and thick. So maybe that is what it will take to get hair on my third! :p
Alexandra Lutz says...
My daughter had tons of black hair. It was really funny–we could see it floating in a late ultrasound we had. But I didn’t have much heartburn…
Dawn Allcot says...
Didn’t work for me either. Had no heartburn, (thankfully!) but she has a moderate amount of hair. It was pretty dark when she was born but is starting to lighten up.