A new US study has suggested that babies who are fed from their mother’s breast gain less weight over their first year than babies who are fed breast or formula milk from a bottle.

by Louise-Anne Geddes, Mindful Mum, 18th May 2012

Three separate studies were published online in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, the full details of which can be found at the end of this article. In the abstract for the study ‘Why Feed Breast Milk From A Bottle?’, the researchers state that ‘because of the childhood obesity epidemic, pediatricians are paying more attention to how and how much infants are fed and not just what they are fed. These concerns are based on research linking infant weight and weight gain to later obesity. Although it is clear that breastfed and formula-fed infants have different patterns of growth, it is less clear that these differences in infant feeding affect the risk of childhood obesity’.

Research and findings

Across the three studies, researchers examined the correlation between obesity, bottle and breastfeeding. A study of 1899 infants was carried out, where they were followed up from birth to 1 year. The results found that compared with babies fed at the breast, infants fed only by bottle gained 71g more per month when fed formula milk, and 89g more per month when fed breast milk from a bottle. The researchers stated that ‘weight gain was negatively associated with proportion of breast milk feedings, but it was positively associated with proportion of bottle-feedings among those who received mostly breast milk’.

Conclusions

The researchers concluded that ‘infant weight gain might be associated not only with type of milk consumed but also with mode of milk delivery. Regardless of milk type in the bottle, bottle-feeding might be distinct from feeding at the breast in its effect on infants’ weight gain’.

Sources: The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Risk of Bottle-feeding for Rapid Weight Gain During the First Year of Life, online May 2012

Selective Protection Against Extremes in Childhood Body Size, Abdominal Fat Deposition, and Fat Patterning in Breastfed Children, online May 2012

Why Feed Breast Milk From a Bottle?, online May 2012

Photo: Myllissa Flickr