Sugary drinks risk to unborn children

♦ Children are at significantly greater risk of developing asthma if their mothers drank sugary drinks in pregnancy, a study suggests.

Researchers at Harvard University studied more than 1,000 women until their children were aged between seven and nine.

They discovered that children of mothers who drank two sugary drinks each day in pregnancy were 63 per cent more likely to have developed asthma, compared with those who abstained. Usually one in five children will develop asthma but that rises to one in three for youngsters whose mothers had a high intake of sugary drinks. It is thought that sugar can cause inflammation in the lungs.

“Avoiding high intake of sugary beverages during pregnancy and in early childhood could be one of several ways to reduce the risk of childhood asthma,” said Dr Sheryl Rifas-shiman, senior research associate at Harvard Medical School. The research was published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society.