Does breastfeeding duration decrease child obesity? An instrumental variables analysis

Abstract

The results suggest that hospital practices that support breastfeeding may influence childhood weight outcomes.

Breastfeeding and growth during infancy among offspring of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study

“…Breastfeeding (BF) provides important health benefits for mothers and children, including protection against becoming overweight or obesity (4–6), upper respiratory infections and diabetes and reduced risk of breast and uterine cancer in women (7). Yet few studies have prospectively evaluated the relationship of infant feeding to attained body size or growth during infancy among offspring exposed to maternal diabetes in utero.…”

Developing a core outcome set for childhood obesity prevention: A systematic review

“…Early infant feeding practices are associated with increased risk of childhood obesity. For instance, earlier introduction of solids (Pearce & Langley‐Evans, ), shorter duration of breastfeeding (Modrek et al, ), poor dietary intake (Pearce & Langley‐Evans, ), and nonresponsive parent–infant feeding interactions (DiSantis, Hodges, Johnson, & Fisher, ) are implicated in the development and maintenance of childhood obesity. The first 2 years of life represent a critical window for establishing healthy feeding behaviours and infant dietary habits (Woo Baidal et al, ).…”

“…During the first 12 months specifically, infants undergo rapid developmental changes and concurrently changing feeding needs (Brown & Lee, ; Taylor et al, ). Although feeding of breast and formula milk has been widely studied and consistently associated with later child weight outcomes, including risk of later child obesity (Modrek et al, ), there is also increasing empirical focus on complementary feeding in the aetiology of obesity (DiSantis et al, ; Pearce & Langley‐Evans, ;Woo Baidal et al, ). This is because the transition to complementary foods that occurs during the weaning period in the first year demonstrates important associations with later weight and dietary patterns (Brown & Lee, ; Taylor et al, ).…”

Latent trajectories of infant breast milk consumption in the United States

“…Trajectory of infant‐feeding behaviours (both mode and substance) may be significantly related to more than simply weight for age at the first birthday. Meta‐analyses, systematic reviews, and limited causal inference studies have found evidence that other healthy weight metrics (e.g., child body mass index [BMI] and maternal weight retention) may also be related to either breastfeeding duration or initiation (Harder, Bergmann, Kallischnigg, & Plagemann, ; Modrek et al, ; Neville, McKinley, Holmes, Spence, & Woodside, ). Other evidence indicates that breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and/or duration are related to other health indicators, including differential childhood susceptibility to ear, throat, and sinus infections (Chantry, Howard, & Auinger, ; Hoffman & Grummer‐Strawn, ; Li, Dee, Li, Hoffman, & Grummer‐Strawn, ; Rusan et al, ; Victora et al, ); maternal cancer risk (Islami et al, ; Yi, Zhu, Zhu, Liu, & Wu, ); and child health care utilization (Bartick et al, ; Meltzer et al, ; Rovers, ).…”