Effects of Breastfeeding on Trajectories of Body Fat and BMI throughout Childhood

Abstract

objective:To investigate the effect of breastfeeding in healthy boys and girls on their trajectories of percent body fat (%BF) and BMI standard deviation scores (BMI-SDS) throughout childhood. Methods and Procedures: Analyses of the DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) Study included data from 219 male and 215 female term participants, born between 1984 and 1999, with repeated anthropometric measurements between 0.5 and 7 years and prospective data on duration of breastfeeding. Results: Among boys with an overweight mother (OW-M), analyses adjusted for potential confounders revealed that not or shortly breastfed (≤17 weeks) boys did not experience the age-dependent decrease in %BF seen in all children with normal weight mothers (NW-Ms). In contrast, boys fully breastfed for >17 weeks were protected against the adverse effect of maternal overweight (effect of long breastfeeding vs. no/short breastfeeding among boys with OW-Ms: −0.46%/year; s.e. 0.18; P = 0.01). There was also a suggestion of an interaction between maternal overweight and breastfeeding for the BMI-SDS trajectory (−0.08 SDS/year; s.e. 0.04; P = 0.07). Among boys with NW-Ms mothers and the corresponding subgroups of girls, breastfeeding had little effect on the development of %BF or BMI-SDS throughout childhood. Discussion: Our study suggests that breastfeeding could offset a potential programming effect for childhood adiposity among boys with OW-Ms, to whom advice to breast-feed should thus be specifically targeted.

Risk factors for childhood obesity: Do the birth weight, type of delivery, and mother’s overweight have an implication on current weight status?

“…[33,34] The initiation and duration of breastfeeding may influence obesity in later life, although this remains controversial. Some studies have suggested that breastfeeding protects against the development of obesity in children.…”

Latent protective effects of breastfeeding on late childhood overweight and obesity: A nationwide prospective study

“…Variables modeled as fixed effects were breastfeeding status, child age, and potential confounders (birth weight, having elder sibling(s), maternal age, parental educational level, total household income, and parental smoking status at 6 months of age). Child age was used as dummy variables for time as previous study found nonlinearity in the trajectory of BMI (20,21). Then, we evaluated the associations between breastfeeding status and changes in BMI over time, using interaction terms between child age and exclusiveness or duration of breastfeeding.…”

Longitudinal Study of Childhood Adiposity and the Risk of Developing Components of Metabolic Syndrome—The Da Qing Children Cohort Study

“…In addition, childhood adiposity may be influenced by early life events like in utero fetal growth (13), breast feeding (14), and rapidity of weight gain during infancy (13,15). A heavier birth weight has been shown to confer a higher risk of being overweight during childhood and adolescence (16,17).…”