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Low birth weight, poor diet impair girls' learning ability
 Lower birth weight and poor diet in childhood can lead to poor learning and behaviour in children, particularly girls, according to a new study.

Researchers from Australia's Monash University and Taiwan's National Defence Medical Centre as well as the National Health Research Institute, found girls with lower birth weight experienced a greater inability to learn and weaker overall competence than girls of normal birth weight.

The study linked the national birth registry to Taiwan's Nutrition and Health Survey to examine possible relationships between lower birth weight, childhood diet and learning outcomes in children between six and 13 years old, the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities reports.