Lauren Neegaard - AP
"WASHINGTON (Jan. 21) - U.S. newborns are arriving a little smaller, says puzzling new Harvard research that can't explain why.
Fatter mothers tend to produce heavier babies, and obesity is soaring. Yet the study of nearly 37 million births shows newborns were a bit lighter in 2005 than in 1990, ending a half-century of rising birth weights.
The change isn't big: The average birth weight of full-term babies is just under 7½ pounds, a drop of about 1.8 ounces, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
That's surprising considering doctor warnings about 9-pound, or bigger, babies. So the researchers double-checked."
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