How Older Siblings Stunt Growth

[Tokis-Phoenix]

"Having an older sibling, particularly a brother, can stunt growth, work suggests.

Experts said the condition of the womb after the first pregnancy may be a factor.

The study of 14,000 families was presented at the BA Festival of Science.

The research, by David Lawson, of University College London, also showed children in larger families were likely to be shorter than average.

Researchers found that that children with three siblings were 2.5cm or one inch shorter than the average height for their age";


Full story;

http/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6992852.stm?lsm




Personally I believe in this research, it sounds very plausable to me. I think this probably goes on a lot with more than just humans though, it probably applies to a lot of animals in the animal world. I'm a lot shorter than my brother, however although most of that is probably because of gender, i think its also plausible that the sibling stunted growth theory played a part too.

Lol when i was a kid, my older brother always used to take my food saying they he needed more food than me because he was older and bigger, at 5 years old back then i believed him, so for years when we used to share out treats like chocolate biscuts our mum had given us, i always used to end up letting my brother having the most biscuts. Of course he was just been greedy back then, but i didn't realise that as a young kid .

I also think its true that young boys tend to be more diffcult for parents to look after than young girls, at least far as my brother went he was a nightmare to look after when he was little, while i was quite easy to look after. My brother caused my parents no end of stress when he was a kid, i think it was probably down to that instinctive older vs younger sibling rivalry/jeolously thing, he was always doing bad stuff for attention.



As human beings, we often like to think that we are far above a lot of basic rules and instincts that apply to animals, but essentially we simply the ape that just got lucky in evolution (that of course doesn't make us any less amazing), we're mammels too. I always find research like this like research on the human body and development always interesting .


Do you have an older or younger sibling? Are you taller than your younger sibling, or shorter than your older sibling?

 

[Robotochan]

I have 2 older brothers, I'm the tallest followed by my eldest brother then the middle one, he's a little shorty Both me and my eldest brother take after our dad and the middle brother takes after my mum. It may be plausible with my middle brother but if he takes after my mum then it could be genetic as she is the shortest of us all

 

[Erised]

I'm the oldest, yet my younger brother is taller than me and still growing.
Just thinking of my family members, and out of the 9 children I can think of (4 different families), all the younger siblings are taller than their older siblings, even though there's an approx. 4 year age difference between all of them.

Most remarkable I'd say are my youngest cousins, my 5 year old male cousin is slightly taller than his 8 year old sister. Nah, don't think I quite believe this theory. Just going through all my family members, including adult members, in my family the second or third born aren't often shorter than the first born.

 

[chishnfips]

yeah I think that theory is pants, I am 6ft 2 and the youngest of three siblings, my bro is like 5ft 10 he is the middle one and my sis is the 5ft 8 and she is the oldest.

Its all to do with genes I reckon

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I'm the youngest out of 3 children (two older sisters) and the tallest as well. My oldest sister (lol she would kill me for refering to her as that ) is slightly shorter then me (by an inch or two) but my other sister is a good foot shorter then both of us

Out of my sisters kids (also three of them). The oldest is most likely going to end up the shortest. At 14 his younger brother is about 4 inches taller then him and their little sister (11-12) is almost as tall as both of them and looks like she wil end up the tallest of the three.

 

[PlecMama]

"children in larger families were likely to be shorter than average."

Food sharing.



However, it is a fact (or should be) that people with older sisters usually suffered some kind of hardship at the hands of that sister at some point in their lives and have never really forgiven them.

 

[Nina]

I am the eldest siblings in my family. I am only 5ft tall yet my younger brother it a good 9 inches taller than me.

 

[Heather.]

I am the oldest at 22 im 5ft7, my brother is 18 and 6ft2..

 

[CrashingWaves]

I have three cousins from the same mother and father, they're all around 6'4 or 6'5.

God Bless,
Joshua

 

[wendywc]

I always thought that it was the youngest sibling who would be the tallest... because that's what I always noticed throughout my life. I once told that to a friend and he reasoned that it was because the womb would be stretched out more after the initial birth... heh.