Well, it is more like a scientific segulah – the results of combining two studies together.  The most recent study (of the two) was published in the journal Jama Network Open.

Researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Maryland followed children born between 2009 and 2013 until they were eight.

Drinking just half a cup of coffee per day during pregnancy can knock nearly an inch off a child’s height, the official study suggests.

By age 8, children born born to women who consumed 50mg of caffeine each day were 2cm (0.8in) smaller than their peers.  The finding remained even after adjusting for other factors that affect a child’s height — including the mother’s age, smoking status, and income.

2,500 boys and girls across the US were analyzed and the results show that expectant mothers should abstain from coffee entirely.

Current US guidelines, which it seems should be changed immediately,recommend pregnant women limit their daily intake to about 200mg. The average 8oz coffee contains about 100mg of caffeine.

Caffeine is thought to constrict blood vessels in the womb and placenta, which could reduce the blood supply to the fetus and stunt growth.

The study is the first of its kind to use blood tests to measure pregnant women’s caffeine intake rather than surveys, which are less reliable.

And now the second set of studies:  Studies show that incomes rise for men for every inch of height by approximately $1000 per inch. Taller people also have higher average earnings for men and for women from the National Child Development Study (NCDS), a British birth cohort study of children born in 1958; the British Cohort Study (BCS), a birth cohort study of children born in 1970; and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a longitudinal study of U.S. households. (The British samples, which we use later in the paper, are discussed below.) For both men and women, the relationship is striking: a one-inch increase in height is associated on average with a 1.4 percent to 2.9 percent increase in weekly earnings, and a 1.0 percent to 2.3 percent increase in average hourly earnings.

The Thompson Elevator Shoe Company took these studies and rounded it off to $1000 per inch on average.

Combine the two sets of studies studies and there you have it – $800 more per year if the mother stops coffee during pregnancy.

As reported by VINnews