and the increase prevalence of allergies amongst adults in the US? Studies show that formula feeding increases the risk of allergies, diabetes and obesity. The past couple of generations of women in the US were encouraged to ff as it was seen as being as good, if not better than bfing (a trend that is thankfully being reversed slowly) and the current generation of adults have a lot more allergies than in previous generations as well as being more obese (which can be blamed on a more sedentary lifestyle as well as bad food choices).
It is easy to oversimplify this issue. Recen studies have concluded that perinatal under nutitition and the resulting leptin levels could also play a role in adult obesity. The thought being that if proper nutrition is unavailable, the body prepares to be in a famine environment and tend toward obesity. Ironically, the mother gaining the vital pound to a pound and a half a week during the last couple of months could be the key to her child growin up with less of a weight issue.
Women have been warned for a couple of decades now not to gain too much weight, and many gain all their “allowed weight gain” a bit too early and many then ease off eating as much, because eating enough during the last two months of pregnancy can be difficult and unconfortable. Also fears of having a big baby loom large in the last two months providing further inspiration for moderating food intake to prevent weight gain. Many think that the baby can just take from the mother with no negative effects. Some studies have indicated otherwise.
Another factor not to be ignored is that weight gain in breast fed infants is often slower than formula fed infants. Since it is difficult to tell how much a breastfed infant is getting in ounces of milk, anxiety that the infant is not getting enough reinforced by a weight chart that says the baby is not growing fast enough can be overwhelming. This can lead to loss of milk or supplementing with formula to ensure faster weight gain. One solution is to look to other indicators of overall health besides just weight. Does the child have enough wet diapers? Is his or her skin tone good? Is he or she brighteyed and alert? Is he or she maintaining a good growth curve? Is development on track?
Breastfeeding is one factor, there are many others.
I’ve seen some kids who were bottle-fed on formula since the day they were born, and haven’t shown any signs of childhood obesity. While I wouldn’t rule out formula as a cause for obesity, I think whatever effect it has is outweighed (heh) by other factors, such as McDonalds.
lee has made some good points, but I’d like to say that as far as I know, (American) doctors have been telling their pregnant patients not to gain too much weight since at least the 1950s. Since I was born in '57, obviously I didn’t experience this for myself, but I do remember my mother being careful about her weight during the two pregnancies that I can recall, and I’ve read numerous books set in that time period which declared that women needed to be especially careful not to gain too much weight during pregnancy.
My sister and I are both fat, diabetic, and have allergies. We were both breastfed (despite the anti-breastfeeding culture of the time). My brother, who was not breastfed (he was in an incubator for almost 3 months, he’d been born 3 months premature) has allergies, but he’s not diabetic or even very overweight. Until he hit his mid 30s, he was skinny as a rail. Now he has a bit of a pot belly, but he’s also been married for a few years to a wonderful cook.
I think that breastfeeding might be part of the equation, but it’s not the only factor.
Did those kids turn out to be obese adults? The reason I’m asking is because ff only increases the risk of obesity, it doesn’t automatically mean that ff infants will become obese later in life. The same way that smoking increases the risk of getting cancer, doesn’t mean that you will get cancer KWIM.
Do you think that parents who formula feed would be more or less likely to start their children off on the path to obesity by making poor food choices? I belong to an internet playgroup and we had mothers on there feeding their children cereal and fruit at 2 months old (official AAP recommendation is 6 months for starting solids).
Isn’t it possible that our poor food choices as adults are influenced by how we are fed as children…woohoo…another thing to blame on my parents…LOL…
As both a scientist and a parent of a child with diabetes, I am particularly aware of the damage that can be done in playing fast and loose with research findings. Please be specific and take care in making such statements, if you are able.
I think that I haven’t seen the studies that would allow me to draw a conclusion, but I am dubious about whether the existing literature would be comprehensive enough to draw this conclusion, particularly when you throw diabetes in the mix. Unless you mean Type II diabetes alone, which would be a complication of obesity and not a direct outcome of formula feeding, no?
I also know how politicized and emotion-laden these types of issues can be for some, which makes proper interpretation of research findings somewhat more complicated.
Just a few websites containing information on the risks of formula feeding. I do agree that it is politicized and emotion-laden as no woman wants to think that they are putting their baby at risk, but pediatricians are quick to tell a mother that not vaccinating their child puts them at risk, but will not tell them about the risks of feeding formula.
It has become big a big business issue with formula manufacturers lobbying to suppress breastfeeding ads and giving peds and hospitals free samples etc. In an ideal world, formula would be only be given as a medical necessity and you would not see it on supermarket shelves but in pharmacies. Women would not doubt their ability to feed their children the way that nature intended and they would be able to get the support and information that they need to foster a strong, healthy breastfeeding relationship.
That probably has a lot to do with recent generations’ germ-phobia, and anti-bacterial varieties of every cleaner under the sun. If the kids don’t get exposed to enough germs early in life, their immune system won’t learn how to create the right kinds of antibodies when exposed to a new foreign substance, thus leading to allergies.
Thanks for the links, biddee. Forgive me, please, for being a bit skeptical, given the bias of the sites and the fact that they were reviews and summaries of the literature rather than studies. I did find the first one somewhat promising, but negotiating my way through the text to identify the cited references, where the actual studies were listed. So I went to OVID to check out the current literature directly, particularly for recent empirical studies, not so much for review articles.
It seems that the literature on the topic remains, unfortunately, somewhat more equivocal than the references you provided might suggest. Two things to note. First, the findings supportive of a link between type of feeding and later obesity status find that breast-feeding is protective against later obesity, not that formula feeding is a risk factor of later obesity, an important distinction to make. Secondly, in these studies, they allude to (and other studies I saw on the fly) support the assertion that physicians still primarily recommend breast feeding, not formula feeding.
Here is a sampling of positive and negative findings.
You make a good point Hentor about bfing protecting against obesity rather than ff contributing to obesity. I do agree that the sites are rather biased, and I bow to your superior knowledge as a scientist.
Admittedly, as a layperson and a new mother, reading this sort of information (on the sites) is pretty alarming and definitely reaffirms my decision to breastfeed my child, but it must be difficult for those mothers who are, for whatever reason, unable to breastfeed. Apparently in Sweden, milk banks are used a lot more than in the US and a lot of women make money that way, but with a lot of Americans already having the ‘ewww’ factor when it comes to bfing in general, the thought of your child ingesting fluids from a total stranger is pretty much a nono. Of course all of this is off topic and just by the by.
This is not remotely scientific, but FWIW: my mother formula fed my two siblings and me (we were born when that was what you were supposed to do). My brother was rail thin for most of his life, although he then married a woman who’s a great cook and he’s proportional now. He has no allergies except a mild one to cats, which he inherited from my mom.
My sister, at 4’10 1/2", weighs less than 100 pounds, so she is CLEARLY nowhere near obese. She has no allergies to speak of.
I am at a proportional weight for my height (5’2" and about 120 pounds) and do have allergies, but these are more to certain foods and soaps, not hay fever or animals and the like. And I never had any allergies till I was in college.
No one in the family is diabetic or has ever had any health problems.
My husband and his brother were both formula fed. My husband is of average weight and never had any major illness, no allergies, etc. His brother is probably the thinnest person I know, no allergies or illnesses.
So, that is two separate families raised on formulas without incident. There is the case that we all could turn out to be obese, but since we’re all between 24 and 36 yeard old, with no sign in site, I think we are probably ok. And except for my husband and my sister, none of us take particular care of our bodies (don’t work out, don’t eat an especially healthy diet, etc).
Admittedly, we come from rather healthy stock and very educated parents who know about nutrition, so to me, that is a much bigger factor than anything else.
I dunno. When I was pregnant two years ago, I got all the support in the world for breastfeeding.
One word of advice, though. Do not buy into these alarmist sites. Use your own best judgment on what is best for your baby based on your own instincts and experience. Otherwise, you will doubt yourself and your mothering abilities, and that’s not good for you or your baby.
Well, I wish you wouldn’t. Or particularly, I should make clear that this (breast versus bottle feeding and associated outcomes) is not my area, and my contribution largely comes from a few minutes worth of Medlining for recent empirical studies on the topic. From this I feel comfortable concluding that things are not at all clearly resolved on the matter, and that alarmist websites are probably overstating things. However, take it for what it’s worth, not as any product of my particular training or experience.
Information from me about clinical child psychology, and disruptive behavior disorders in particular? Now, that you can take to the bank!
You ever see a case where a… toddler? (she’s 31 months) refuses, refuses to say her name? You can’t bribe her, trick her, glower at her (until she giggles at your funny face), explain to her about names, or nothing. She just refuses to say her name.
However, her behaviour is excellent. She’s polite (says “please”, “thank you”, “pardon”, and “excuse me” unbidden), well behaved (she’ll even put her toys away and her dirty dishes in the sink, and she’s wonderful in sit-down restaurants), smart (today she counted to 10 for the first time, she knows some of her letters, and does a lot of those little “adult” things that toddlers do that are so cute), charming (looks you in the eye and says “Hi!” with a smile, shakes your hand, and comforts anybody and anything that seems like its having a hard time) and an absolute joy to be with.
But the name thing is odd. We don’t press her on it as that can turn out to be too much of a power struggle, but it’s been going on for at least a year. As far as she is concerned her name is either “me” or “baby” (It’s actually “Sophie”, btw).
I tend to see a more impaired range of functioning, generally speaking, than the population as a whole. I have seen variations of this, but in the context of a host of deficits, unlike your description here. However, what I haven’t seen yet is a child with no idiosyncrasies. Like you said: Kids! Go figure.
Yeah, it’s no big deal as she’ll get over it in time anyway, I’m just curious as to what could be going on inside her head that makes her refuse to say her name. I think that it has something to do with the fact that she thinks that babies are “special” and that if she is no longer a “baby” then she is no longer “special.”
Check with me in twenty years.