BMJ 1999;319:1576 ( 11 December )

Letters

Breast feeding and obesity

    Relation may be accounted for by social factors
    Prolonging breast feeding to reduce obesity may be a burden

Relation may be accounted for by social factors

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EDITORIn their paper on breast feeding and obesity von Kries et al report that, in a large sample of children (n=13 345) who were aged 6 in 1997, the lowest prevalence of overweight and obesity at that age was in those who had been breast fed for longest.¹ By contrast, analysing data from our national longitudinal study of children born in 1946 (n=3731)² in a comparable way, we found no significant relation of breast feeding with overweight or obesity at age 6 and a suggestion that the lowest prevalence of overweight and obesity at that age was associated with the shortest period of breast feeding (table).

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

These findings lead us to question von Kries et al's conclusion that childhood overweight and obesity are associated with the composition of breast milk, as does our biologically implausible finding that the greatest risk of overweight or obesity was in those children who were breast fed for . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

another explanation

Denny Rice
bmj.com, 10 Dec 1999 [Full text]

PROLONGING BREAST FEEDING

Christopher D E Morris
bmj.com, 14 Dec 1999 [Full text]

Breast feeding and obesity

Jana Vignerova
bmj.com, 20 Apr 2000 [Full text]

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