Breastfeeding can Prevent Obesity in Children
Research Links Frequency of Childhood Obesity with Breastfeeding
Aug 22, 2009
Obesity has become a major public health concern. Recent data suggest that more than one out of seven adolescent is "obese" and more than one third are overweight. A research paper published in the "American Journal of Human Biology" shows a significant relation between breastfeeding as babies and childhood tendency for obesity. The research concluded that a breastfed baby will have 40% less chance of being extremely overweight as a teenager.
Breastfeeding Habits and Obesity – Excluding the Biasing Parameters
There have been some researches that linked breastfeeding with lower weight and less chance of being obese, however, they were done on a large population sample and didn't cancel out several parameters that can link breastfeeding preferences to adolescent weight. Some of these parameters like parents' overweight, general diet and average income were excluded by comparing brothers or sisters. Some other parameters that influence both breastfeeding and children's weight like labor at early age or employment status of the mother before delivery were specifically excluded to avoid biased results.
The research, done by Molly Metzger and Thomas McDade from Northwestern University have, for the first time, showed a direct relation between breastfeeding habits and weight at childhood. The comparison was done between never breastfed and fully or occasionally breastfed babies; the effect of a full breastfeeding haven't been tested. This relation suggests that breastfeeding has another benefit over bottle feeding.
Previously Breastfed Brothers have a Lower Weight
The researchers used data related to the weight of siblings in the ages of 9-19 in the United States. Overall there were 118 pairs of brothers or sisters that met all the criteria and were included in the analysis. Comparing the BMI of the breastfed and never-breastfed siblings showed that the breastfed sibling had a lower weight compared to his or her brother or sister. Previous studies show that their average weight difference is 13.5 pounds for girls and 14 pounds for boys in the mean age of 14.
The chances of being highly overweight were tested and found to be lower in breastfed babies. When a weight percentile of 85% was chosen, the numbers showed that a breastfed baby had a 40% less chance than the never-breastfed one to be in this percentile. The researchers concluded that breastfeeding reduces the chance of being obese in childhood.
Breastfeeding has a lot of benefits for both the baby and the mother including protection from infections, a better cognitive development, a protective effect against type II diabetes and SIDS. Can obesity be added to this list of breastfeeding benefits? According to this research it seems that it does. There are several explanations that can be given for the phenomenon. One explanation is that the two milks affect the metabolic systems of the infant differently, this in turn can change the set times of appetite and metabolism.
Although teen-agers' obesity results from low physical activity with a dense-calorie diet, it was here shown that other factors can influence their weights. Breastfeeding was found useful once more.
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