How to avoid obesity in children......

[EnlightenedFlum]

.... Check this out.

My dad was chatting with his Doctor recently who had recently been on a course about tackling childhood obesity.

The Doctor said the one easiest way to avoid childhood obesity was to maintain a 'slim' baby. ie not too chunky. And he said the easiest way to do that was to never give formula milk in the first six months because it is higher in fat than human milk and makes fat cells in babies which causes them to become over weight as children. Possibly obese.

So can we do a quick survey....

Anyone formula fed their babies before six months? And have any of them become fat children.

It really surprised me as I would think a recommendation like that would have come to light sooner, since formula has been around for years.

[roisin]

I thought it was quite acceptable for babies to go through a chubby stage. Certainly my two did, particularly ds1 aged 6-24 months, (both exclusively breastfed).

BUT they both slimmed out as they became active and are both tall, thin, (ds2 positively skinny) children now.

[jane313]

I remember reading in the Miriam Stoppard baby book that it was important not to overfeed with formula like you can with breastmilk as "fat cells are produced by an infant in repsonse to the amount of fat that is taken in the food. Once produced the cells can't be removed, so if your baby develops an excessively large number they will still be present when she's an adult"

No idea if its true because lots of stuff that she wrote about breastfeeding (ie the best stuff is in the first few mins, was rubbish). Also I hate the way she also went on about being fat being an embarrassment.

[redsky]

ds breast fed - tall and skinny(17)

dd ff from 4 months - fat tummy (12)

[Tommy]

DS1 - bottle fed from 3 - skinny as anything.
DS2 - breast fed exclusively - no formula at all - chubby thing

I'm with joolstoo on this one

[Tommy]

bottle fed from 3 weeks ....duh

[paolosgirl]

Joolstoo - does that work if you have big bones?

[pixiefish]

my brother and i were both bottlefed from birth and neither of us are fat/obese. i'm slighty overweight now but that's only happened with bfing dd and eating loads of crap. now on a dairy free diet due to dd's eczema and losing weight nicely.
my dd breast fed and is a slim baby

[Poopigeating]

I'm rejuvenating this thread, because I would like to hear the opinion of fellow mners.
I have a friend that I haven't seen for some time, her baby boy is about 6 weeks younger than mine.
Both babies were little babies, mine was early hers full-term, but both under 6lbs.
We both had problems bfing initially, but I stuck with it and my dd is now fully bf and weaning since 6months. My dd is around the 25th centile and very active, crawling and alert.
I met her a week ago and I was shocked at the size of her ds. He is really really fat, and I don't mean in a cute chubby way - he must be close to 30lbs at 7mths - average length, from being under 6lb? She reckons he is off the chart for weight and kept saying how surprised she was at the difference in the two babies.
A while back I heard her ds was gaining weight at double what he was expected, and I was told she was bottle feeding him very large quantities.
I don't think she has had much help or guidance from her HV and probably didn't really know how much to feed. Plus she was very stressed about his intial small size and her problems with bfing.
When we were talking, I had the impressiong that she was dissapointed that her ds couldn't roll, because he got too tired, and she said he couldn't move much, because he was too heavy. She thought my dd was 'advanced', I didn't have the heart to say that she is pretty standard, I mean a lot of babies can crawl at 7/8 months?
I know the baby has had some respiratory problems in the past month as well, but I don't know if they are size related.
I am worried about her baby, but don't want to be interfering - it's just not fair on that little boy. He just sits in his buggy and stares. I can't see how he will work off any of the weight if he's too heavy too move. He just didn't look very healthy.
Am I over-reacting to this, is this a health problem? What would you do?

[QZebra]

He does sound overfed but am not sure what you can do about it, unless you're willing to run the risk of sounding interfering. In spite of everything people said on this thread before, I think it's pretty established that there is a greater risk of bottlefed babies becoming obese in later life, and that this relates back (statistically) to being big babies in some cases. Normally seeing the HV would trigger something to make your friend realise... really ironic to read your post because a friend of mine was hassled because of her over-sized DD who had a huge weight gain (like your friend's baby), but that was a 100% breastfed (until 9 months, just didn't want solids) baby who walked by 11 months in spite of her chubby size, and slimmed down to actually being somewhere on the charts by 2yo.

I wonder if you could just be honst with your friend that you think her DS is getting more milk than is good for him, better if he filled up more on lower-calorie solids (carrots, parsnips, brocoli, etc.)

[QZebra]

bump for poopig'g

[unicorn]

An observation/ thought to throw in to the arena....

I know parents who didn't like the dummy - but used the bottle (milk) as a type of dummy replacement, ie when baby was making an annoying noise - in would go the bottle.

Needless to say their 2 year old is now overweight... and they wonder why!

[SofiaAmes]

I think it's hard to say at 7 months. I was breastfed and was a truly obesely fat baby until I started to walk. I have been skinny ever since (and I'm now 42). Both of my children were pretty fat babies and exclusively breast fed. They both skinnied out once they started to walk.

[QueenEagle]

Being a fat baby is no indicator or guarantee that they will end up fat. What rubbish!

ds1 was the chunkiest baby; fat cheeks, folds of fat on his arms and thighs - trust me he was huge. I breast fed for about a month then put him on hungry baby formula. He was also fed rice in a bottle (don't ask!) and solids from 10 weeks (advice at the time was 12 wks, but he was a dustbin).

He is now 11 and has a really muscley physique. He is into all sports and really active and eats a healthy diet, and quite possibly just takes after his parents who are slim and fit.

So I personally reckon this bottle/breast debate doesn't matter too much. You need to look at the lifestyle and eating habits of the baby/child as they are growing up, together with their genes.

[uwila]

I atttempted to BF DD... for about 2 weeks and gave up due to neve being able to encourage much supply. So formula from about 2 weeks on. She's a skinny 2 1/2 year old now. DS is 7 weeks old so too soon to say.

[Tortington]

i did and the doctor is talking bollocks. you avoid obesity in children by letting them exercise. even given regular level of sugary crap - each day a healthy child will lose it in excersie ( may become diabetic at 23 tho!)

what a pile of stinky poo

[potty1]

Ds1 was formula fed from 2 weeks, was positively fat by 6 months (having been weaned at 12 weeks) . Is now a slim almost 17-year old who eats a fair amount of junk when not at home but walks/bikes everywhere.

[Toothache]

Got to agree with Custardo here! That is just rubbish!! I'm actually shocked (but not surprised) that formula feeding is being blamed for yet another thing.

Whats more shocking is that he is insinuating that if you have chubby baby then what???? You put them on a diet????? Dangerous IMHO.

[emily05]

Totally agree with Toothache and custardo.

To answer the survey part of the original question - ds was bottlefed and has always been exactly spot on for his weight/height. He is now 3 and is still spot on. My friend has a really plump baby who is breast fed, I dont see in my life anything to support what you are saying.

[tortoiseshell]

Ds - mixed fed - varies from thin to scarily thin...
Dd - exclusively bf till 6 months - chubby and also tall

[spidermama]

Hello poopigeating,
My baby is gorgeously fat as fat and I'm not in the least big worried. He's way off the chart. He's just 5.5 months and 11kg (24.5lbs). He's fully breastfed and I utterly trust him and mother nature to know what they're doing.
My ds2 (5) was once a huge big chubby lump like this, and is now a lithe and fit schoolboy.

A friend has a baby born the day after mine and she's a tiny bird in comparison. It's like she's a different species. She's also completely fine. She looks a bit feeble to me, but only because if what I'm used to.

I think there's a huge range of shape and weight for healthy babies.

I'm amazed at the quote from the so-called doctor in the first posting. I've seem many a gorgeous fat baby turn into a fit and slim child.

[poopigeating]

I think I'll start a new thread for this discussion, as there seems to be some confusion re what we are discussing.
My fault.