Breastfeeding has been found to be protective against later overweight/obesity in the child. see for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22314050. What do you mean by "top feed"?

Top feed means bottle feed with milk or milk powder., with obesity reaching alarming levels much is needed to stem the phenomena from reaching a point of no return.. Very often we find mothers feeding thier child and wiling that their child is not gaining weight. Who is to be educated the mother, or the doctor who many times is helpless, or the members of the family or father. Why are we so protective about our children, are we afraid or are we obsessed.

Does the literature identify whether it is a causal link between breast-feeding and weight health? or a selection issue - ie women who breastfeed are also more health and nutrition conscious and feed their children better later on?

Who knows, but that study did control for maternal age, education, etc. I don't know if any animal studies have looked into this to eliminate the social factors entirely... it might be hard to feed a mouse formula! but maybe possible in larger animals. I have no idea.

Studies in rats show that maternal nutritional status during lactation influences the body weight of offspring in adulthood and is related to milk composition. The maternal malnutrition, for example, is associated with excess weight of adult offspring.

The studies that I have read indicate that formula milk is more likely to increase the risk of obesity compared to breast feeding.

Breast milk protect the child to become obese while top feeds increases the risk of child become obese.

The literature on wither breast feeding reduces subsequent obesity is mixed and often interpreted with bias, as researchers want to belive that breast feeding will reduce risk and they support the other benefits of breast feeding. you should read the article:

White hat bias: a threat to the integrity of scientific reporting

Mark B Cope1, David B Allison2Article first published online: 6 OCT 2010

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2010.02006.x/full

and

White hat bias: The need for authors to have the spin stop with them

R L Atkinson1 and I Macdonald2

http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v34/n1/full/ijo2009269a.html

See the excellent summary in

"The impact of maternal overnutrition and obesity on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response of offspring to stress." Long NM, Nathanielsz PW, Ford SP. Domest Anim Endocrinol. 2012 May;42(4):195-202. Epub 2012 Jan 11. I couldn't find any bias in their conclusions.

PMID:22264661[PubMed - in process]

Related citations

That article did not look at the impact of breast feeding on subsequent weight of the child?

We must look the physical exercise too. It's different rural life (more exercise) than urban life (less).

Early studies showed that breast feeding (over 6 mos) was protective against the infant become obese as an adult but more recent studies don't show a clear association.

a new study on this issue just published, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-breastfed-babies-idUSBRE84G1EB20120517

Yes, according to the survey children's obesity is linked with nuclear family because the family gene will be affecting the child and lead to obesity it is because of nuclear family

although other factors are related to the development of obesity, nutrition in early life has an important role. The use of milk formulas rich in carbohydrates are strongly associated with the development of obesity, unlike breast milk.

Over nutrition during infancy has been found to lead to childhood and adult obesity. There is also a strong correlation between birth weight and later obesity. So obesity is related to over nutrition during gestation and childhood. Thus both excessive breast feeding and processed milk consumption can lead to obesity.

Any substitute for breast milk is called "top feed"

Thomas, what is excessive breastfeeding? Could you quote any evidence supporting your statement please?

Please see the following review from CDC.

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/nutrition/pdf/breastfeeding_r2p.pdf

Does any one think that mother's food intake (high calorie, high fat diet) influence breastfeeding baby's over weight?

You should look at this Cochrane Review which found no effect. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22895934

Mothers role in taking care of a child right through the preschool , school and early child hood may make an impact on obesity.

I very often see children in the bracket of overweight when in their early teens.

Is overfeeding by mother or TOP feed responsible..

Hi Latha,

Fat content in breast milk is influenced by mother's diet. Interesting to see how fat content in mother's milk influences baby's growth!

Hello :) Interesting question.....

Decades of epidemiological research have established that breastfeeding is associated with modest reduction in risk of obesity in later years. This particular association is partially explained by confounding factors. Some examples are: maternal weight status, education, socioeconomic status, age, etc. Typically, women who choose to breastfeed or breastfeed longer are more educated, wealthier, older and have more social support for breastfeeding. These factors are also closely associated with healthier lifestyle practices, such as regular physical activity and healthier diets. So, the fact that they are breastfeeding is not the only reason as to why their child may or may not be overweight. There are clearly many other factors that may promote a healthier weight for the infant that need to be considered, it is quiet difficult to assess whether or not it is breastfeeding that CAUSES lower weight status, we can only state that there is an ASSOCIATION. Another confounding factor could typically be that overweight mothers statistically are more likely to have overweight children. Regardless of whether or not they breastfeed, the child's likelihood of being overweight in later years has increased due to the fact that they have an overweight mother. As you can see such confounding variables can impact the infants short or long term risk for overweight and obesity – it is not just based on breastfeeding alone, and it quite difficult to assess.

However, despite the confounding variables, there is much evidence present that depicts an association between breastfeeding and a healthy weight status in later years. In terms of breast feeding vs. bottle feeding, infants who are breastfed have the ability to self regulate their intake to meet nutritional needs – so they tend to consume just enough milk to satisfy their needs (and not overfeeding). Whereas in bottle feeding, mothers typically visually assess and monitor how much infants are consuming which may encourage over-consumption. In comparison, the act of breastfeeding does not provide this key visual information about how much milk is consumed – thus breastfeeding mothers must rely on the satiety cues from the infant – which ultimately prevents over-consumption from occurring.

Lastly, in terms of physiological factors that may promote overweight or obesity in formula fed children, formula milk has higher protein content (double the protein content of breast milk) that may promote excess physical growth in infants. Formula milk also has an increased ratio of omega 6/omega 3, which may stimulate adipocyte growth and may promote more inflammation in the infants body. Another factor to consider is that breast milk contains Leptin, which is a satiety factor. There is an absence of leptin in formulated milk, causing the child to consume more. Also, it is important to keep in mind that breast milk contains numerous bioactive factors that have the potential to regulate growth in humans such as live cells, steroid hormones, immunoglobulins, growth factors, etc. (To be honest - I am not sure as to how much these bioactive factors impact growth in infants, but I do know that it is a fairly new field of study, research is still being done to determine the relationship).

I hope this information is of good use to you!!! Please comment if you need clarification. Goodluck :)

Hello Satyaprasad, very interesting discussion! The answer to your question is "no".

Breastfed children receive a milk with a pH of 8.4..... all replacement powders make a substance with a pH of 6.4 when the added water has a pH of 9.2...

Any idea how devastating this may be....????

As long as my daughter was breastfeeding her daughter's first urine in the morning had a pH of 7.3 once she had to change to replacement "milk" that shifted the urine in the 5.8 up to 6.2 area.... meaning there is a lot more acid to be evacuated .....

Still searching what the long term effect may and will be..?????

Why is the first urine in the morning of obese people in the 4.2 range ?????????????

that is 1000 times more acidic then urine from breastfed babies .!!!! What goes in must come out ....

Physiological ph: saliva: 7,4 / esophagus: variable / stomach: 1,5- 3,5 / intestine (thin): 5- 7 (thick): 6- 9 / blood: 7,35 / lymph: 7,4 / urine: 4,6- 8,0 (normal).

food like citric fruits, vegetables, lacteal, can increase urine PH.

food like meat, blueberries, can decrease urine PH

I just put up an extensive report on breastfeeding at www.downeyobesityreport. including new study on association with FTO allele.

Completely agree with Dr. Holden.

But is important to understand why there is what appears to be a statistical increase in obese children. Regardless of many scientific arguments that could be presented, i tend to think the answeris rather simple and it talks about a very complex issue. Its lack of required levels of physicalactivity and junk food. Also, the stress of modern education system.

I will not be surprised if there are any epid stufies showing higher prevalance of obesity in children in urban settings, more so in developed countries.

You may wish to look up Dr. Julie Mennella's work on influence of breast-feeding vs formula-feeding on fat and body weight gain in infants. Kids satiate faster on breast milk and protein-hydrolysate formulas as opposed to cow milk-based formulas. As one of the factors involved.