Health

Breast-feeding may limit teenage obesity

1 min read

Recommendation is to breast-feed infants for first year

Infants who were breast-fed more than formula-fed, or who were breast-fed for longer periods, had approximately 20 percent lower risk of being overweight in their preteen and teen years, according to a recent study. In this study, breast-feeding included feeding infants breast milk extracted from breast pumps. The implications are dramatic. “Breast-feeding may prevent obesity later in life,” said lead author Matthew Gillman, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. “Our study, along with others, supports the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics to breast-feed infants for the first year.” The study followed 15,000 boys and girls. The research findings were reported in the May 16 Journal of the American Medical Association.