(Breast feeding and obesity: cross sectional study)
Prolonged, exclusive breast feeding reduces the risk of children becoming obese, say researchers in this week's BMJ. Dr Rüdiger von Kries and colleagues from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich suggest that this finding may be an important argument in the drive to encourage breast feeding in industrialised countries.
From their study of 9,357 children in Bavaria the team found that infants who were breast fed exclusively for three to five months were more than a third (35 per cent) less likely to suffer from obesity by the time they reached school age. They conclude that the protective effect of breast feeding from obesity is more likely to be related to the composition of breast milk than lifestyle factors associated with breast feeding.
Contact:
Dr Rüdiger von Kries, Professor of Paediatrics, Institute for Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany ag.epi@lrz.uni-muenchen.de