BMJ  2005;331:453-454 (20 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7514.453-b

Letter

Early life risk factors for obesity in childhood

Early feeding is crucial target for preventing obesity in children

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Reilly et al present their findings on some early life risk factors for obesity at age 7 in a cohort of 7758 children born in the early 1990s.¹ We believe that their conclusions about breast feeding and time of weaning are flawed.

The investigators infer that these early feeding factors are unimportant because they are not independently associated with the obesity outcome in a statistical model that includes more proximal, parental, and prenatal factors. If early feeding factors exert their influence on childhood obesity largely through a causal pathway that includes other factors in the investigators' statistical models then it is not surprising that the early feeding factors do not emerge as independent predictors: it is a mistake to infer that these factors are therefore unimportant. The central public health issue is to identify the modifiable risk factors that can reasonably be assumed to be causal for obesity . . . [Full text of this article]

buchan@manchester.ac.uk
Medical School, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT

Medical School, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT

Department of Primary Care, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GB

Institute of Child Health, University College London, London WC1N 1EH

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