Selective Protection Against Extremes in Childhood Body Size, Abdominal Fat Deposition, and Fat Patterning in Breastfed Children

Abstract

To determine whether the effect of breastfeeding on childhood measures of adiposity differs across percentiles of childhood body mass index (BMI), subcutaneous (SAT) and visceral (VAT) adipose tissue deposition, ratio of subcutaneous to triceps skinfold (STR), and intramyocellular lipid accumulation (IMCL).

Socioeconomic status, infant feeding practices and early childhood obesity†

“…In support of previous research, we found that low SES mothers were the least likely to breastfeed , thus our findings add additional support to the volume of literature demonstrating that breastfeeding has a protective effect against childhood and adolescent obesity . We found, independent of other maternal and child characteristics, infants predominately formula fed for at least 6 months more likely to be obese at 24 months of age, relative to infants predominately breastfed.…”

Newborns with lower levels of circulating polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are abdominally more adipose

“…There may thus be no strict need to provide LCPUFA supplements to the majority of pregnant mothers in our region. A low prevalence of maternal PUFA deficit may be one of the reasons why, so far, studies of LCPUFA supplementation have yielded rather negative or conflicting results (7,18). Our data suggest that such studies should henceforth be more targeted towards PUFA deficient mothers.…”

“…The correlation between PUFA and abdominal fat was lost at age 4 months, pointing to the influence of other environmental factors on body fat distribution, for example, breastfeeding . It is also plausible that maternal PUFA have a time‐limited impact, as suggested by intervention studies showing no effects of maternal LCPUFA supplementation beyond early infancy .…”

Moderate‐To‐vigorous physical activity is associated with decreases in body mass index from ages 9 to 15 years

“…To the best of our knowledge no previous studies have used quantile regression to model the association between physical activity and changes in BMI in children. Cross‐sectional studies have used quantile regression to investigate the association between obesogenic exposures, other than physical activity, and BMI in children (23‐26). In those studies, the obesogenic exposures tended to exert stronger associations at the upper tail of the BMI distribution compared to the lower tail of the BMI distribution (23‐26).…”