This study says babies who look like their dads are healthier — for a really messed up reason
Many expectant mothers do everything they can to help ensure the health of their newborns (we’re talking neonatal vitamins, healthful diets, the avoidance of our beloved sushi, etc.). But it turns out there might be another factor that will eventually affect the health of your child — specifically if you’re a single mom, and it’s not what we were expecting.
A new study that surveyed 715 single mothers showed that babies who resemble their fathers are healthier on average than those who don’t. Apparently, a dad is more likely to spend time with his offspring if said offspring looks like him, and more time with dad yields overall benefits to the child.
Study co-author Solomon Polachek realized that by the age of one, babies who reportedly looked more like their fathers at birth were in better health than babies who didn’t bear a resemblance. On average, they found that babies who looked like dad had about 2.5 more days of exposure to them than babies who didn’t.
"We find a child's health indicators improve when the child looks like the father. The main explanation is that frequent father visits allow for greater parental time for caregiving and supervision, and for information gathering about child health and economic needs," Polachek said, per CBS News.
Needless to say, this a heartbreaking study. Single mom are already superheroes in our eyes, and they shouldn’t have to hope that their baby looks any particular way in order to get the support they need from their child’s father.
Not okay, guys. Not okay by a long shot.