Some
Children With Healthy Weight Helped By Breast-Feeding
A Healthy Start
Brings Results
A new study, reported
in the medical journal Pediatrics, provides
the most conclusive evidence to date that prolonged breast-feeding
can help reduce the risk of obesity.
"There are continued
benefits to continuing breast-feeding," says study author Dr.
Laurence Grummer-Strawn, chief of the Maternal and Child Nutrition
Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC).
The CDC
researchers based their conclusions on an analysis of 177,304
children up to five years old, and a subset of 12,587 mother-child
pairs, making it the largest breast-feeding study to date. Previous
studies have yielded contradictory results.
By highlighting a
key benefit of prolonged breast-feeding, the study also bolsters
recommendations that mothers breast-feed their babies for at
least a full year.
The longer women breast-feed
their babies, the less likely the children are to become overweight,
the authors say.
That is true,
at least, for non-Hispanic Caucasian children. Breast-feeding
did not protect against excessive weight gain in some African-American
and Hispanic children, the researchers add.
The American
Academy of Pediatrics, for one, encourages breast-feeding
for at least 12 months to provide the fullest benefits for baby.
"If you breast-feed
your babies, your children are more likely to have a reduction
in illness, and one of those is obesity," says Dr. Lawrence
Gartner, chairman of the panel on breast-feeding of the American
Academy of Pediatrics.
Overweight
Has Health Consequences
An estimated 15 percent
of children and teens aged six to 19 are overweight, according
to a 1999 to 2000 federal survey. The growing girth of youth
in the US poses serious health consequences, placing kids at
higher risk of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease,
and certain types of cancer.
To examine the possible
connection between prolonged breast-feeding and reduced risk
of overweight, the CDC researchers looked at
information from the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance
System. This survey captures data from children seen
at public health clinics across the US.
The team examined
how long children nursed and their body mass index (BMI) - a
measure of weight in relation to height - at four years
of age. Children with a BMI that topped the 95th percentile
for their age were considered overweight.
More than two thirds
of children in the study, 71 percent, were never breast-fed,
and only 6 percent were breast-fed for six months or more.
Children who
were never breast-fed or who were breast-fed for less than one
month were most likely to be overweight at age four, the study
found. With increased breast-feeding duration, the rate of overweight
kids declined.
For example, nearly
14 percent of those who were never breast-fed and 14
percent of those who were breast-fed less than a month
were overweight at age four. By contrast, among those who were
breast-fed for more than 12 months, 11 percent were overweight.
Breast-fed children
were also less likely to be underweight, the study found.
Mothers-to-be might
be asking themselves why the big fuss over a couple percentage-points
difference between prevalence of overweight among bottle-fed children
and those who were breast-fed more than a year.
"It is a small difference,"
Dr. Grummer-Strawn admits, but it is significant. "What we're
talking about is 'What are the things we can do to prevent overweight?'"
he says. Breast-feeding is clearly one of those things.
More Left
To Learn, Researchers Point Out
How long-term breast-feeding
protects against obesity is not clear, although studies
suggest several possible explanations. One is that a breast-fed
child can self-regulate his or her caloric intake better than
a bottle-fed child, whose parents may insist the baby finish
off a pre-measured amount of formula.
Breast-feeding, of
course, is only one factor influencing a child's risk of obesity.
The study authors
note that Hispanic children are nearly twice as likely to become
overweight as non-Hispanic children "probably because of different
dietary and physical activity patterns."
Parents' introduction
of solid foods or exclusive reliance on breast-feeding may also
differ along racial and ethic lines.
For example, many
Hispanic mothers combine breast-feeding with bottle feeding,
and that may explain the weaker effect of breast-feeding in
that group, Dr. Gartner says.
Always consult your
child's physician for more information.
Online
Resources
(Our Organization
is not responsible for the content of Internet sites.)
American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
La
Leche League International
National
Institute of Child Health & Human Development
National
Institutes of Health (NIH)
National
Women's Health Information Center
US
Food and Drug Administration
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March 2004
Some
Children With Healthy Weight Helped By Breast-Feeding
Overweight
Has Health Consequences
More
Left To Learn, Researchers Point Out
Benefits
of Breast Milk
Online
Resources
Benefits
of Breast Milk
There are many reasons
why breast milk is the best milk, including the following:
Nutrients
Human survival depends more on brain power than on strong muscles,
rapid growth (rapid maturity), or body size, so a mother's milk
is rich in the nutrients that best promote brain growth and
nervous system development.
Research has found
that breastfed babies perform better on different kinds of intelligence
tests as they grow older. They also develop better eye function.
This is due mostly to certain types of fat (fatty acid chains)
in human milk, which are not available in artificial formulas.
The sugar (carbohydrate)
and protein in breast milk are also designed to be used easily
and more completely by the human baby. A mother's milk
is the perfect first food to help your baby achieve every aspect
of ideal growth and development.
The American
Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies who are
exclusively breastfed receive additional vitamin D. A physician
can recommend the proper type and amount of vitamin D supplement
for your baby.
Anti-infective properties
Only human milk is alive with many different kinds
of disease-fighting factors that help prevent mild to severe
infections.
Babies who are fully
or almost-fully breastfed, or breast milk-fed babies, have significantly
fewer gastrointestinal, respiratory, ear, and urinary infections.
Antibodies in human milk directly protect against infection.
Other anti-infective
factors create an environment that is friendly to "good" bacteria,
referred to as "normal flora," and unfriendly to "bad" bacteria,
viruses, or parasites.
Human milk also appears
to have properties that help a baby's own immune system work
best. If your baby does become ill when breastfeeding and receiving
your milk, the infection is likely to be less severe.
Easily digested
Since nature designed human milk for human babies, a mother's milk
is the most easily digested food your baby can receive. A nutritious,
yet easily digested first food is important for a baby's immature
digestive tract.
A baby uses less energy,
yet breaks a mother's milk down more completely into its basic
ingredients, so the nutrients, anti-infective factors, and all
the other ingredients in the milk are more available to fuel a
baby's body functions and to promote a baby's growth and development.
Bio-availability
Bio-availability is a fancy way of referring to how well the
body can use the nutrients in a food.
The high bio-availability
of nutrients in human milk means your baby gets more benefits
from the nutrients it contains - even for nutrients that appear
in lower levels in breast milk when compared to artificial formulas
(because your baby's body can absorb and use them most effectively).
It also means your
baby saves the energy that would be needed to eliminate any
nutrients he/she had difficulty digesting or using.
Suitability
A mother's milk is best suited to, and so it is more gentle
on, a baby's body systems. The suitability of milk plays
a role in digestibility, and it allows a baby's body to function
most efficiently while spending a lot less energy on body functions.
Suitability is also
thought to be one reason that breastfed babies are less likely
to develop allergic-related skin conditions and asthma.
The digestibility,
bio-availability, and suitability of your milk means that your
baby's body is able to work less yet receive more nourishment.
Always consult your
child's physician for more information.
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