How The Month You Were Born Can Shape Your Life

A summer birthday means warm weather, outdoor fun… and maybe problems in school. (Photo: Getty Images)

If you knew that children born during a certain time of year were at a higher risk for educational delays or specific health issues, would you try to time conception to give birth during a particular month?

Related: What Happens if You Don’t Take Prenatal Vitamins?

The concept is not that crazy. That’s because two new studies demonstrate the different ways that the season of a baby’s birth can influence his or her odds of developing certain diseases and conditions, as well as the likelihood that the child will lag behind his or her peers during the first year of school.

The first study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggests that kids born during the summer months are at an educational disadvantage when they start school.

Researchers looked at data from 7,267 English children between the ages of 4 years and 9 months to 5 years and 10 months, and evaluated how well the kids did on academic and behavioral tests. Turns out that the youngest children were rated by their teachers as having more language problems, worse behavior, and poorer academic progress by the end of the year.

Related: What Really Causes Autism?

One big reason for the weaker performance? Schools in the U.K. typically have a birthday cutoff of Sept. 1 (in the United States, it’s also usually between Aug. 1 and Oct. 1). That means children born in June, July, and August are almost a full year younger than some of their classmates — and a full year behind academically as well as socially.

“Our results question whether many of the youngest children in the classroom have the language skills to meet the demands of the curriculum, to integrate socially with older peers, and to regulate their own emotions and behaviours,” wrote the study authors.

One way to get around this summer-birthday disadvantage is to hold a child back so that he or she starts school the following year, when the child will be among the oldest kids in his or her class. Called redshirting, “this is a troubling idea for some parents, because holding a child back carries a stigma,” Susan Newman, PhD, social psychologist and author of Little Things Long Remembered: Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day, tells Yahoo Parenting.

“It’s a difficult decision to make, because if a child is struggling in just one area, tutoring or extra attention might help bring them up to grade level,” says Newman, who was not involved in the U.K. study. “At the same time, kids who are held back tend to do well. There’s a social adjustment at first, but then they settle in.”

Dealing with school issues is one thing. But a second study found that birth month is associated with a child’s lifetime risk for dozens of different health conditions. The study, conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, pored through more than one million patient medical records, determining a link between the month or season of birth and 55 diseases.

Among the findings: People born in May and July have the lowest overall disease risk, Mary Regina Boland, PhD student at Columbia University Medical Center and a study co-author, tells Yahoo Parenting. Those with October and November birthdays have the highest risk, according to the study.

In terms of specific conditions, heart disease risk was highest for those born in March, while July and October babies were more likely to have respiratory diseases, such as asthma. Kids born in November also demonstrated higher rates of ADHD, which may be related to the lack of sunlight and a vitamin D deficiency, study authors theorized.

Despite the correlation between birth month and disease risk, the study authors caution against trying to time births to a more health-optimal month. “It’s important not to get overly nervous about these results because even though we found significant associations, the overall disease risk is not that great,” said Nicholas Tatonetti, PhD, assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center and a senior author of the study, in a news release.

“The risk related to birth month is relatively minor when compared to more influential variables like diet and exercise.”

Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? Email us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.