Fathers' Drinking (and Smoking) and Infants' Birth Weight

To the Editor: Little and Sing reported in the Correspondence section (June 19 issue) 1 an association between the drinking habits of fathers and their infants' birth weight. This relation was noted after control for demographic variables and variables related to the mothers' drinking and smoking during pregnancy. In contrast, we found no association between fathers' drinking and infants' birth weight, but we did find a strong association between fathers' smoking and infants' birth weight while controlling for mothers' age, parity, alcohol and tobacco consumption during pregnancy, measures of medical illness and social class, and the sex of the newborn (P