Emily Oster

2 min Read Emily Oster

Emily Oster

Do Babies With More Hair Cause Worse Heartburn During Pregnancy?

Q&A on old wives’ tales

Emily Oster

2 min Read

Is it true that babies with more hair cause worse heartburn during pregnancy? I have had horrible heartburn since the second trimester, and many people have told me that means my child will have a lot of hair. This seems like an old wives’ tale. Where on earth did it come from?

––Burning to Know

Most old wives’ tales are just that: tales. Like the idea that the way you carry indicates the sex of your baby. Or that girl babies “suck your life force and make you ugly.” People used to think if you saw certain animals during pregnancy, your baby would have birthmarks that looked like them. These things are … not true.

nurse handing over a newly born child to the parent
Jonathan Borba / Pexels

In the case of hair and heartburn, there is a little evidence that it might be more than a tale. In particular, we have this paper, which surveyed 64 women about their heartburn and then took pictures of their babies’ heads and had reviewers rank their amount of hair. The authors found that, in fact, there was a correlation between heartburn and hair. More heartburn equals more hair. They have some speculation on why that might be, although there is nothing to strongly prove their conclusions. 

This paper was published back in 2006, and, unfortunately, there has been no follow-up! I suppose, given the very large number of important aspects of women’s health we do not know about, this is a small issue. But still, would it be so hard to survey, say, 300 people? At any rate: until we see more data, I’m not completely convinced.  

But you should keep us updated! If your baby has a lot of hair, that’s one more data point in favor.

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VV
VV
29 days ago

Lots and lots of hair (enviable eyebrows, too), zero heartburn!

Caroline
29 days ago

Another data point: Two pregnancies, both babies were born with lots of hair, no heartburn with first pregnancy and bad second trimester heartburn with second pregnancy.

JDHines
JDHines
30 days ago

Another data point – had such bad heartburn it made me puke more than morning sickness, and my daughter was born with hair so long we thought we’d have to trim her bangs for her to see 😂

Lhp
Lhp
1 month ago

my experiences more align with this being an old wives tale- my first had a lot of hair and I had no heartburn… my second was completely bald until he was almost one and I had the worst heartburn for my entire second and third trimester!

samfields
samfields
1 month ago

Adding another data point: I had medium-to-bad heartburn when I was pregnant with my daughter, and she was born with so, so much hair—it was the first thing I heard the doctors talking about, even before I saw her. She never lost any of it and still has tons to this day at 21 months. I’m pregnant again and the heartburn is about the same, if not a little more constant. We shall see where this kid lands on the hair spectrum 🔮

Maya
Maya
1 month ago

Baby was born with a ton of hair and I had zero heartburn or reflux.

clarembeare
clarembeare
1 month ago

To add a contrasting data point, my child was born with so much hair that every single hospital worker who interacted with us commented on it and to this day (12 weeks later) people still say “whoa that’s a lot of hair” and I experienced no heartburn whatsoever. Reflux? Yes. Heartburn? Nope. To complicate matters a little further, though, I was taking one daily Tums for calcium, but I don’t think that would be enough for me to not notice any heartburn that could have been there.

egbeneze@gmail.com
egbeneze@gmail.com
1 month ago
Reply to  clarembeare
1 month ago

Is there a difference between heartburn and reflux? I thought they were all the same thing.

Another data point in favor: I had horrible heartburn/reflux the majority of my pregnancy, couldn’t even think about laying on my right side, and had a hard time gaining weight because of the severity. Baby girl came out with at least an inch of hair. At 3 months she has more hair than most 1 year olds.

clarembeare
clarembeare
1 month ago
Reply to  egbeneze@gmail.com
1 month ago

I honestly don’t know if they are different- I thought heartburn was supposed to be more painful and reflux was simply the re-entering of stomach contents in the esophagus (I experienced this as painless). But if they are the same thing then my data point is another one in favor of the old wives’ tale.

CarolineCarnivorous
1 month ago

I would say I had medium heartburn, my baby had a lot of hair (I’ve seen a couple of babies with more though, so not a crazy amount). I googled this after birth and think I found that paper, haha.

kash
kash
1 month ago

1 data point for you: my baby was born with a ton of hair, and I would say my heartburn was pretty intense! Like, keep tums on the nightstand for easy access when it woke me up, and I’d frequently wonder if going over the recommended daily amount was *that* bad.

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