Mothers who use beauty products containing parabens during pregnancy may be more likely to have overweight daughters, a small study suggests.

Babies tended to be heavier at birth and more likely to become overweight by the time they were eight years old when mothers used make-up, creams and other common beauty products containing parabens while pregnant, the study found.

One of these chemicals, butylparaben, was associated with excess weight only in girls.

Parabens were often used as a preservative in beauty products and had been known to disrupt the endocrine system, previous research had found.