A new study from the Brigham Young University has found an association between infant feeding patterns and obesity in adolescence and adulthood.
Parents often start feeding infants with solid food or formula feed before six months of age, which leads to higher possibilities of being overweight in middle childhood, adolescence or as an adult, according to Brigham Young University news release. Breastfeeding is often recommended for infants at least till the first six months.
The nutritional and health benefits of breastfeeding are known facts. The new research from BYU shows that infants who are formula fed are 2.5 times more likely to become overweight than those babies who are breastfed for first six months.
"If you are overweight at age two, it puts you on a trajectory where you are likely to be overweight into middle childhood and adolescence and as an adult," said Renata Forste, Professor of Sociology, BYU. "That's a big concern."
Forste was accompanied by Ben Gibbs, lead author of the study and a sociology professor in BYU, for the study, which analyzed data from over 8,000 families. The study found that the habit of putting babies to sleep with a bottle increases the risk of obesity by 36 percent and introducing solid foods before four months increases the risk by 40 percent.
The study also notices that low-income families are less apt to continue breast feeding for six months and the children are introduced to bottles and formula food much earlier. The economic conditions of such families do not allow breast feeding. Women are forced to introduce alternatives for convenience. Childhood obesity is also more common among low-income groups.
"Formula feeding becomes more convenient, more readily available, despite its cost," Gibbs said. "There's a lifestyle component that's really difficult to carry out if you're economically distressed."
She says that breastfeeding helps babies to stop when full, and hence it helps to control the obesity factors. However, when an infant is fed through a bottle, parents insist on finishing the whole bottle rather than stopping when the baby feels full, which increases the chances of obesity.
"You can still do things even if you are bottle feeding to help your child learn to regulate their eating practices and develop healthy patterns," Forste said. "When a child is full and pushes away, stop! Don't encourage them to finish the whole bottle."
"Formula feeding becomes more convenient, more readily available, despite its cost," Gibbs said. "There's a lifestyle component that's really difficult to carry out if you're economically distressed."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past three decades. Obesity rate among children aged between 6-11 years in the U.S. has increased from 7 percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 2010 and similarly 5 percent to 18 percent increase has been recorded in adolescents and young adults aged 12-19 years old.
The findings of the study appear in the journal Pediatric Obesity.
