Breastfeeding and obesity
Breastfeeding is touted as a good thing - for lots of things - from nutrition, to protection against infection.
But one oft-touted benefit is that breastfed babies are less likely to become obese. In the interests of truth and honesty in advertising though, and risking the ire of breastfeeding zealots everywhere, this may be one area where the magic of breast milk is overwhelmed by the realities of day-to-day living.
A study in the United States of over 2,600 three- to five-year-olds has found no protection against being overweight from breastfeeding, regardless of how long or fully they were breast fed.
The variable which seemed to matter was whether the mother was overweight. The risk of becoming an overweight child tripled if the mother was overweight, and went up four times if the mother was sufficiently overweight to be classified as obese.
The authors felt that if breastfeeding had an effect, it was swamped by things like lack of physical activity and dietary habits in their households.
Just to confuse matters, a paper in the same scientific journal did show less risk of being overweight among adolescents who were breastfed as babies - but the authors admitted that maternal obesity was a factor they couldn't fully take into account because overweight women are apparently less likely to breastfeed their babies.
Even though the reasons for breastfeeding have only gone down by one - maybe - it's still the best food for a baby. But research like this is a reminder that our destiny is not easily fixed by a spot of mother's milk.
- Hediger ML et al Journal of the American Medical Association 2001 Vol 285 pp 2453-2460
- Gillman MW et al Journal of the American Medical Association 2001 Vol 285 pp 2461-2467