Breastfeeding and weaning affects childs body composition
Children who have been breastfed longer often have a lower fat mass which can not be explained by differences in family background or the child’s height, a new study shows.
The research, published in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in the US, measured body composition in children at four years of age whose diets had been assessed when they were infants.
Independent of the duration of breastfeeding, children whose weaning diets were based on fruits, vegetables, and home-prepared foods had a greater lean mass at four years of age.
Researchers assessed the diets of 536 children at six and 12 months of age in the Southampton Women's Survey - the largest study of young women and their children ever undertaken in the UK. Diet was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire that was administered by trained research nurses to record the average frequency of consumption of specific foods. The age at which solid foods were introduced into the infant’s diet was also recorded. The subjects’ body composition was assessed at four years by dual X-ray absorptiometry.
Dr. Siân Robinson, of the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, said:
“Most studies linking infant feeding to later body composition focus on differences in milk feeding but our study also considered the influence of the weaning diet.”
MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre director Professor Cyrus Cooper said: “These findings are enlightening. An influence of qualitative differences in the weaning diet on childhood body composition has not been described before.”
Other researchers working on the study include Lynne Marriott, Sarah Crozier, Nick Harvey, Catharine Gale, Hazel Inskip, Janis Baird, Keith Godfrey of the University of Southampton and Catherine Law of University College London. The study was funded by the Medical Research Council, University of Southampton, British Heart Foundation and the Food Standards Agency.
The article “Variations in infant feeding practice are associated with body composition in childhood: a prospective cohort study,” will appear in the August 2009 issue of JCEM. The abstract can be viewed online.
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stephen.pogonowski@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
