Dairy for teen moms may help build infants' bones

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pregnant teens who get plenty of calcium from dairy foods may be helping their babies build stronger bones, a new study shows.

A woman's calcium requirements peak during pregnancy, and meeting these needs is particularly important for pregnant adolescents, whose own bones are still "growing and maturing," investigators note in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

However, pregnant adolescents drink less milk and eat more snack foods than adult pregnant women, Dr. Gary M. Chan of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and colleagues point out.

They tested an intervention to promote adequate calcium intake in a group of 72 pregnant girls aged 15 to 17. Study participants were randomly assigned to a control group who ate their normal diet; a group instructed to drink four servings of calcium-enriched orange juice daily, including more than 1,200 mg of calcium; or a group assigned to consume four servings of dairy products each day, which also contained at least 1,200 mg calcium. The National Dairy Council helped fund the study.

Average calcium intake was 862 mg for controls, compared to 1,472 mg in the orange juice group and 1,771 in the dairy group. Half of the mothers in the orange juice group were unable to consume the entire recommended amount due to stomach discomfort, and needed to take supplements to meet the 1,200 mg requirement.

Chan and colleagues report that infants of mothers in the dairy group weighed more and had higher total body calcium than babies whose mothers were in the other two groups.

Mothers in the dairy group also had higher blood levels of folate, a B vitamin that helps prevent neural tube defects in the fetus, as well as higher levels of vitamin D.

Consuming dairy can thus help pregnant adolescents build their babies' bone strength, and may also help prevent birth defects, the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Obstetrics & Gynecology, September 2006.