An Irish study has found an association between fathers' vitamin D intake before conception and their child's height and weight.

What a woman eats during pregnancy may not be the only factor that ensures a baby's healthy development.

Research presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Porto, Portugal, has found an association between a father's vitamin D intake and a child's height and weight at age five.

Maternal vitamin D intake before pregnancy has been found to have an important role in a child's musculoskeletal and overall health.

But researchers have paid little attention to whether a father's vitamin D intake before conception can influence the health and development of their offspring.

Researchers from the school of public health, physiotherapy and sports science at the University College Dublin, Ireland, investigated the potential relationship.

Analysis of the Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study found a link between a father's vitamin D intake reported during the first pre-natal trimester and the height and weight of children at age five among 213 father-child pairs.

The findings showed no association between a mother's vitamin D intake during the first and second trimester and children's weight and height at age five.

The association was no longer statistically significant by the age of nine, according to the researchers.

"Paternal vitamin D intake was positively and prospectively associated with offspring's height and weight at five years old, independent of maternal characteristics, meriting further investigation of familial dietary pathways," the authors concluded.

A father's nutrition status is though to influence the health and quality and function of their germ cells, which are chromosome-carrying cells involved in reproduction.

"Thus, maternal nutrition may not be the only key factor in offspring's growth development and health," the authors wrote.

The researchers also found that three or more hours of playing outdoors during weekends was related to increased height at five years of age, further supporting evidence that skin exposure to sunlight is essential for the body to produce vitamin D.