Bottle fed babies who start weaning early are more likely to be obese children-new research

[moondog]

\link{http:www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/07/nbaby07.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/07/ixhome.html\Here}

No surprises there then.

Agree Tatties.

me - breastfed - slim, illness free
dh - breastfed - bit overweight, illness free
dd - bottlefed - slim, illness free
ds - bottlefed - slim, illness free
ds - bottlefed - slim, illness free

what does that tell you?

Hmmmm, not in my family

Me - bottlefed, slim and will eat/try most anything very rarely ill.

Dsis - breastfed, really very overweight throughout childhood and still is and the pickiest eater on the planet. Vegetarian that won't eat veg! Constantly ill with something or other.

My DD's all breastfed though!

God, so that's how I ended up a size 8-10!

It's all very well telling people not to wheel out personal stories but at the end of the day, if you don't see research bourne out in RL then you generally take it with a pinch of salt. I can think of absolutely loads of contradictory examples so it doesn't bother me.

Far more likely to be obese from crap genes, eating crap and sitting on your arse all day than because you had formula God knows how many years ago.

aren't the bodies used in this research real people from real families who have real personal experiences then?

Tbh, I think it would be interesting to do our own MN study - we can all list our immediate family, how we were fed, whether fat or slim, allergies or not, illness or not. Just out of interest!

Of course TH, but what I'm saying it, studies can tell you all they like but if you don't see it around you it's hard to take it seriously. I for one don't google for study evidence every time I make a decision about something - I look around me and take personal history and experience into account. I'm pretty sure most people do this - how many times have we been told that MMR is safe and how many people still won't believe it and go for singles?

Hang on, I've read the article now - so really it's just about calorie intake?! Bloody hell - hold the front page!!!!

personally feeling personal stories are valid is such discussions as this. This research may very well be accurate for the sample of children they observed and researched. But what is happening in real life to ordinary children out there right now IS important too.

Hmmm, not my experience but there you go.

DD was breastfed for 4 weeks, then bottle fed entirely from 6 weeks. She was also weaned early. She is now 4 and has NEVER gone through a fat or chubby stage at all. She is a very active little girl and always has been. She adores her food but we follow the everything in moderation rule of thought.

I was breastfed but was always had a bit of "puppy fat" and big cheeks with dimples, right until puberty. My brother was formula fed, due to medical reasons, and has always been pretty skinny. My sister was breastfed and was skinny on the whole too.

Dh was bottle fed and was always a tall, skinny thing. His brother was also bottle fed but was a chubby little thing.

Just thinking of the children I know at them moment, where I know a bit of their feeding/weaning information, and there appears in my small selection to be no correlation at all It is all very varied and mixed TBH.

But vaccinations are different: it's very difficult to develop any kind of research based informed opinion, in my experience.

Tbh, I don't know of a single fat child - where are they all?!?!? I visit the school playground everyday and I've not seen a single fat child!

GDG - there were some at the last school I taught. But they were secondary age. They did eat loads I have to say, when compared to other slim children, and did no where near the same level of exercise.

I don't actually know any fat/obese litttle children at all though.

so does that mean if you breast feed and wean early you wont be obese?

I was bottle fed and deffo more prone to be lardy than my breastfed brother and sister

Hula - ahh yes, I'm only really seeing primary age - no fat ones that I've seen! Honestly - where are they hiding! They must exist!

Will have to be the MN challenge, to seek them out. I am the same - don't know any at primary or preschool age.

my sister brother and I were bottle fed and they are both skinnies and I'm a fatty but I eat more crap than them - so is that not why I'm fat?

Also thinking about it, my bottle fed ds has always been stocky, where as my three breast fed children are all slim. Just thought I'd even up the personal experiences arguement a bit

I've just read the article, and whilst I disagree with Hula in the sense that this study is about here and now (the kids are only about 10 now, and they're all in the UK) I don't think the study says exactly what the Telegraph says it says (shocker). It really just says that energy intake relates to obesity (double shocker) and the if the energy intake was higher in bottle fed babies then they were more likely to become obese that breastfed babies with a high energy intake. Presumably if the energy intake is OK then they are no more likely to become obese than breastfed children, so it may be worth publicising as a cautionary note, but not to demonise bottle feeders. It's also very misleading to say that the study is of 14,000 children- the whole ALSPAC study is, but this only comprised 800 odd of them.

I didn't say the research was invalid. Just that personal experiences are also important, and possibly more so for the average person as that is what they see and experience.

well I was BF and am very fat..pmsl was also big as a child. My sisters were both BF also one ois 6ft tall and overweight like me the other is 5ft1 and a rake [mainly due to all the drugs she consumes]. MY Ds was bf for 4wks then bottle fed and is a skinny tall child. DD is average weight at the moment but we will see how that pans out as at her age DS was on the 91st centile thing and is now classed as underweight.

meant to add that DS shock horror was also one of those weaned at 11wks babies.

Excellent, I can stop worrying about DS being underweight then?

haven't read all this (will read later as just on my way home) but thought I would add that there are key times in a life that fat cells are laid down.

The first & probably most important one, is in babyhood. So it makes sense that if you are a fat baby - you have more fat cells. These fat cells are with you for life unless you have liposuction. The next key time is around pubety. So if you were always normal - no podgy bits, but put on weight at this time, another lot of fat cells are laid down.

If you never get fat/chubby (a la supermodels & some normal people) chances are you didn't lay these fat cells down & so will be unlikely to have weight problems.

When you put on weight, the fats cells you have increase in size, so if you have lots of them, you'll be bigger. & if you don't have many, well, you're very fortunate ! (of course until middle age spread comes along & all those odd hormone changes, but that's a different story)

Therefore, as some formula fed babies tend to lay down more fat/tend to be heavier, they will have more fat cells - > prone to weight problems etc