Seoul March 19 (IANS) New mothers take note. If you are breastfeeding your high-birthweight infants you may probably be protecting them from being overweight or obese in childhood a new study suggests.
"High birthweight is associated with overweight or obesity during early childhood. Among high-birthweight infants exclusive breastfeeding is a significant protective factor against overweight and obesity " said lead study author Hae Soon Kim from the Ewha Womans University College of Medicine in Seoul.
For the study presented at the ENDO 2018: The Endocrine Society s 100th Annual Meeting and Expo researchers investigated the weight-growth trajectory and the protective effect of breastfeeding for obesity in children.
They analysed data between January 1 2008 and December 31 2016. The researchers followed 38 039 participants who were completely eligible for all health checkups from birth through six years of age.
At each check-up period the researchers examined the association between birthweight status and growth development.
Infants were assigned to one of three groups by birthweight: the low-birthweight group less than or equal to 2 500 grams; the normal-birthweight group over 2 500 grams and under 4 000 grams; and the high-birthweight group 4 000 grams or more.
During the follow-up period about 10 per cent of the low-birthweight infants and 15 per cent of the normal-birthweight developed obesity or overweight. By contrast more than 25 per cent of the high-birthweight infants met the criteria for obesity or overweight.
The high-birthweight infants were highly likely to be overweight or have obesity compared with normal birthweight infants through six years of age and the low-birthweight infants were highly likely to be underweight through six years of age the researchers said.
The risk of overweight or obesity decreased significantly if high-birthweight infants were exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life they noted.
--IANS
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