The Link Between Breastfeeding and Childhood Obesity

There May be an Inverse Relationship Between Breastfeeding and Obesity.

by Dr. Richard Visser

Of the many factors that contribute to childhood obesity, whether or not your child is breast fed can be the most influential.

Your child's growth is fastest in the first year of life, a time when children are most vulnerable to poor nutrition. Babies need food that not only provides enough calories and nutrients, but is also varied, balanced, and wholesome. Without this, a child's system, built to naturally regulate itself against obesity, can be compromised.

children who are breast-fed exclusively until their sixth month are better able to control how much they eat. "Feeling full" depends not only on the volume ingested but also on the composition of the nutrients. The "stop eating" mechanisms in a nursing child are largely associated with the fats found in breast milk. Compared to children who aren't breast fed, those who are have been found to be more active and work more to extract the milk from the breast (developing an early habit of "exercise"), stay awake longer, develop fine motor skills as well as visual acuity more quickly, and distinguish between colors earlier.

So, feeding your child in the first year of life has two goals: 1) to satisfy the child's energy and nutritional needs for optimal development, and 2) to provide the best combination of nutrients and feeding method that will help create appropriate eating nutritional habits.

Achieving both goals is best met by holding off introduction of new foods until after that the sixth month milestone (recommended by the World Health Organization). After the first six months, when your child begins to teethe and is more active, introduction of solid and semi-solid nutrients to complement breast milk is ideal. This provides: nutrients required to meet your child's increasing energy needs; necessary amounts of proteins and fats; needed minerals, such as iron, zinc, and selenium; and important vitamins, such as Vitamin A.

Ingesting solid foods should be made as pleasant as possible to encourage the enjoyment of different foods. Take your time, and don't worry about how much your child is eating. Remember, this is "complementary nutrition," and the breast remains the most important source of food until one year of age.

Premature introduction of solid foods could cause energy intake above recommended levels and create undesirable eating habits, such as an addiction to excess simple sugars, which can lead to obesity. It could also create a diet too high in animal and/or vegetable proteins and increase the risk of allergic reactions, digestive intolerance to substances, such as gluten, asthmatic respiratory conditions, and skin lesions.

What about other kinds of milk? Cows, goats and other species' offspring simply grow at a faster rate than human babies, so their milk contains protein types, as well as caloric density, inappropriate for an infant. Before a baby is six months old, consuming non-human milk and other protein-rich foods of animal origin, such as meat, can therefore result in a renal load that is too high and can lead to serious dehydration, especially if your child is ill with fever or diarrhea, which increases the loss of fluids through extra renal processes.

In upcoming installments of this series on childhood nutrition, you'll see how to avoid other risk factors that contribute to poor dietary habits and how to ensure proper nutrition for your entire family.

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