Granny Miscalculated 'Fixed Times for Feeding Babies' Advice

A new study reveals that feeding the new-born on demand checks obesity at a later age, which means that grandmothers were wrong in suggesting that babies should be fed only every few hours. According to researchers, giving newborns food whenever they want could keep their appetite and weight in check as they grow up.

Experts explained that babies are born with a sense of how much food they need and naturally stop eating when they are full.

Giving them food at set times, when they may not be hungry, could over-ride this and lead them to piling on the pounds when they get older.

Lynne Daniels, a professor of nutrition at Queensland University of Technology, Australia studied almost 300 babies and their mothers.

She found that babies who were fed on demand or 'responsively' were lighter at 14 months than others.

"If the mother is responsive, she is responding to the child's cues of hunger and not over-riding them. Whereas, if a mother feeds in schedule, she decides whether or not he is hungry and is more likely to make the child finish the bottle," the Daily Mail quoted Daniels as saying.

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Source-ANI