to Nikki Lee, whose letter to the editor is in the Oct 8 issue of Nursing Spectrum!
                                            Letters
"Babies who are breastfed are less likely to be obese, both as children and as adults."
Breastfeedig helps prevent obesity
    "It's Never Too Soon to Prevent Obesity" (Clinical Clips, Aug.13, 2007) is a timely topic.  The CDC says one in three children born in 2000 will become overweight or obese.
    Motivational interviewing techniques, developing guidelines, and teaching parents about a child's need for activity are important strategies to prevent childhood obesity.  Babies who are breastfed are less likely to be obese, both as children and as adults.
    On Feb.1, 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a statement reaffirming its policy statement, "Prevention of Pediatric Overweight and Obesity."  In this document, the AAP's Committee on Nutrition reccomends that healthcare professionals "encourage, suppport, and protect breastfeeding."
    A study published in 2000 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association shows that mothers who breastfeed learn that infants can regulate their own intake.  The Growing Up Today (GUTS), an off shoot of the Harvard Nurses Health Study, was published in 2006 in Diabetes Care.  GUTS found that breastfeeding was inversely associated with childhood obesity, regardless of a mother's diabetes or weight status.
    In a 2007 article in Collegium Antropologicum, a senior researcher at Abbott Laboratories, the maker of Similac formula, writes that breastfeeding is one startegy that offers protection from obesity.
- Nikki Lee, RN, MS
Elkins Park, PA.

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