Hello everyone! My name is Kristin Thorfinnson. I am a junior in the nursing program at the University of North Dakota. I am currently taking Childbearing II and will be starting clinicals on the OB unit in a few days. This area of nursing is very new to me, so I am eager to learn all I can. Breastfeeding is fascinating to me. I have been reading posts on this listserv for a few weeks now, and am amazed at the wealth of information there is! One aspect of breastfeeding that really caught my attention was the possible link between breastfeeding and decreasing obesity later on. With such an epidemic of obesity, it is wonderful to discover ways that can possibly reduce obesity. I did some research on the relationship of breastfeeding and obesity. I found that this topic has been quite controversial over the years. The most recent data seems to show that breastfeed has a protective effect on obesity. Grummer-Strawn and Mei (2004) looked at how breastfeeding duration affects the weight status of 4-year-olds. They found that breastfeeding for longer than 6 months seemed to protect the children from becoming overweight. I also found an article that was a literature review of 61 published studies regarding infant feeding and obesity. After careful review, Owen, Martin, Whincup, Smith, and Cook (2005) found that the overall consensus was that initial breastfeeding is protective against obesity later in life. It was also interesting that they pointed out that having more mothers effectively breastfeed could lead to a less obese population in the future. I found many studies showing that there is, in fact, a relationship where breastfeeding can protect against becoming overweight or obese. However, I could not find definite reasons why it does this. Dewey (2003) explores the possibility that is could be due to the learned self-regulation of breastfeeding where an infant stops eating when full. She states that mothers can have the tendency to make a baby finish a bottle of formula not knowing that they are full. Another possibility for the relationship is the difference in metabolism of breastmilk and formula. She talks about the roles of insulin and leptin in obesity and the differences between breastmilk and formula. The last possibility that Dewey (2003) suggests is the existence of confounds in the studies relating to attributes of the parents or environment that were not measured. Since there hasn’t been conclusive evidence and “perfect” studies about the causal factor of the relationship of breastfeeding and obesity, there are still many skeptics. This leads me to a few questions that I have for you. Is there something in the breastmilk that seems to prevent or ward off obesity, or is there something in formula that is directly linked to being obese? Do you think the relationship has more to do with what infants eat, how they eat, or when they eat? Is there any evidence that the bonding experience of breastfeeding might somehow be associated with decreasing obesity? Also, in your experiences, do you promote this information as a main benefit of breastfeeding when talking with expectant mothers? Any information that you could give me is greatly appreciated! Thank you very much! Kristin Thorfinnson, SN University of North Dakota Dewey, K. (2003). Is breastfeeding protective against child obesity? Journal of Human Lactation, 19(1), 9-18. Grummer-Strawn, L. & Mei, Z. (2004). Does breastfeeding protect against Pediatric Overweight? Analysis of longitudinal data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System. Pediatrics, 113(2), e81-e86. Owen, C., Martin, R., Whincup, P., Smith, G., & Cook, D. (2005). Effect of infant feeding on the risk of obesity across the life course: a quantitative review of published evidence. Pediatrics, 115(5), 1367-1377. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html