Childhood Obesity Risk May Not be Reduced by Breastfeeding

A new study published in the journal of the American Medical Association contradicts the common assumption that breastfeeding reduces the risk of obesity.

The study involved 17,046 mothers and their infants. They were randomly divided into two groups and one group was introduced to interventional program promoting breastfeeding.

Richard M. Martin, Ph.D., from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and his colleagues noticed that 43% of the mothers who were introduced to the intervention program exclusively breastfed their babies when compared 6% of those in the control group.

Researchers followed up the health of 14,000 children and at the age of 11 years they compared the weight and body fat of the children. It was found that around 15% of the children were overweight and around 5% were obese.

The findings reveal that there is no significant effect of breastfeeding in controlling obesity in children.

The authors thus conclude that breastfeeding certainly has its other health benefits though is unlikely to stem the current obesity epidemic.

Source: Medindia