Competition over meager resources also depends on the position of birth. You find that in most families, it is only the last born who receive the attention that they deserve be it educational, health or medical. This is because parents do not have other smaller kids who are competing for the same and that they have all the time to spend with these kids. The first born might not get the health care that they might need because sooner or later other siblings are born who put more strain to the family economy and especially if it was already stretched.
The possibility is that the first born are the one that are sacrificed are not given preventive care that is needed. Again the last born are also affected by their birth positions. As more and more children are born, the rate of food shortage increases and this is something that affects the health of these children because they might become malnourished. Personality development of the siblings is also affected by the birth order. Birth order affects sibling’s economic, social and economic life and these are the things that shape ones personality.
When this problem is combined with competition for parental attention, the outcome is not good. (Breslau, N. 1992) Though some factors that affect sibling’s health such as birth order are outside parental control, parents could also play alleviatory role in the effects of the same by encouraging their children to have and maintain a positive and healthy relationship with one another. This can work to strengthen the bonds that exist between them and this is something that could lead to the emergence of a very strong relationship. (Stearns, 1999)
Another health effect of birth order is that the first born tends to dominate over the second and other kids. They may even eat the food that is meant for other children something that could be detrimental to their health. Parents though unconscious of the role they play in this, they perpetuate the problem by asking the oldest siblings to take care of the rest and this is something that is misinterpreted by these children ending up usurping the role of the parent thereby mistreating the younger ones when their parents are not allowed. Financial status of the family also affects the well being of the kids.
Fist borns receive all the medical attention they deserve before other kids are born but immediately they are born, the attention reduces. “Later borns, for example, are less likely than first born to be vaccinated, and in developing countries later borns tend to be shorter and suffer higher rates of childhood mortality than do their older siblings” (Sulloway, 2008) According to the researches that have been done by various researchers (Stearns, 1999), personality and intelligence level of the siblings also depends on the birth position.
The time that each child spends with their parent determines how intelligent that child will be. The time that parent share with their kids is very vital in shaping the personality of that kid and this depending on the amount of time spent may contribute towards brain’s development and in turn high intelligence quotient (IQ) It is common knowledge that it is the last borns that receive more parental attention than the first and so this is used by psychologists to explain why last borns have higher intelligence quotients and more contentious.
Lack of proper breastfeeding is another problem that affects the health status of the siblings. Researches have shown that children who are properly breastfed are healthier and intelligent that those that are not and so, the gap between one child and another matters. Again this is used to explain why last borns are healthier and have higher IQs than the rest. The reason behind this is that they have all the time needed for breastfeeding as they are the only one.