Men over 60 'have healthier babies than teen fathers'

Even if the man is in his 60s, the health risks for the child are no higher than average.

In contrast, babies with fathers in their teens have more chance of arriving prematurely or dying before their first birthday.

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Well-known older fathers include Des O'Connor, who had his fifth child at 73, and Rod Stewart, who had his seventh at 60.

The study, the largest of its kind, compared data on the health of 2.6million babies born in the U.S. over a five-year period with the age of their fathers. All the babies were born to women of a similar age.

Analysis showed that children of teenage fathers suffered many more problems in the first hours and months of life than those born to men in their 20s - the decade thought to produce the healthiest children.

Boys and girls with teenage fathers were 13 per cent more likely to be underweight at birth and 15 per cent more likely to have been born prematurely.

They were also 22 per cent more likely to die within the first month of birth and 41 per cent more likely to have died before their first birthday.

In contrast, babies of fathers in their 40s, 50s and 60s suffered no more problems than those born to men in their 20s, the journal Human Reproduction reports.

The researchers, from the Ottawa Health Research Institute in Canada, said the combination of the scale of the study and the limited age range of the mothers meant the findings were unlikely to be down to chance.

Professor Shi Wu Wen, senior scientist at the Institute, said: "The magnitude of the risks to society could be huge, given the number of births worldwide, if the increases we found are truly attributable to parental age."

It was unclear why a young age should have such an effect although teenagers are thought to produce lower quality sperm.

Lifestyle may also play a large role, with young fathers likely to have less money to lavish on their pregnant partner, and, perhaps, being more likely to drink and smoke.

British experts said the explanation was likely to lie in lifestyle. Dr Allan Pacey, a male fertility expert from Sheffield University, said: "It makes sense that babies born to sugar daddies probably have a better start to life."

The study did not look at the risk of birth defects. Previous work by the same team has shown that babies born to older fathers are at greater risk of conditions such as Down's syndrome, whereas the risk of spina bifida is higher with younger fathers.