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Does This Formula Make Me Look Fat? Breast-Feeding and Childhood Obesity
Filed under: Breast-Feeding, Opinions
Breast-feeding is Weight Watchers for the stroller set. That's if you swallow the hype that breast-feeding "protects" babies in the battle of the bulge.
True, studies have found lower rates of obesity among children who were breast-fed. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin plugged the reduced obesity risk in her Call to Action enlisting the public's help in getting more babies on the boob. Michelle Obama has also pushed the breast in her campaign against childhood obesity.
No doubt, too many kids are chubby. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates obesity has tripled over the last 30 years with over 33 percent of children overweight or at risk of being overweight. A study out last month classified 32 percent of 9-month-olds obese or at risk.
Yes, there's a problem all right, but more breast milk is not the answer.
However well-intentioned the claims about breast-feeding, the actual evidence remains ... slim.
Typically studies ask a question or two about breast-feeding, sometimes decades afterwards, then look at a mix of weight, body mass, and fat from infancy through early childhood to adolescence or young adulthood. Sometimes results show a benefit for breast-feeding, sometimes not. The lower obesity risk tends to be small and often limited to groups like preschoolers or non-Hispanic white kids.
White kids. Those skinny white girls? Gotta be the breast milk.
You can see how it gets hard to argue a physiological or biological explanation for benefits that accrue to only one privileged ethnic group. Nor is it plausible that only breast-fed white babies learn how to accurately assess their hunger cues thereby preventing a lifetime of overeating.
So breast-feeding benefits have nothing to do with breast milk and everything to do with parents, namely the differences between mothers who breast-feed and those who don't. The former tend to have more education, higher incomes and let's be honest, gym memberships and pantries full of whole grains.
Ah, food. The missing ingredient.
Researchers who study obesity and breast-feeding have no idea what kids eat in a normal day, let alone week or decade. Almost none bothered asking about food, unless it's infant oatmeal, like the recent study showing the introduction of cereal before 4 months raises the obesity risk only for formula-fed babies. It's as if humans miraculously stop eating after infancy. Sure, it's hard to accurately measure. People are notoriously bad at estimating their food intake and even if they weren't, who's going to admit a serious relationship with McDonald's?
Still, it's ridiculous to make causal conclusions about what babies eat now and what they will weigh years later without seriously considering their childhood diets.
Somehow none of this has stopped the media, the pediatric community or public health officials from touting breast-feeding as essentially a diet aid. It's only a matter of time before it becomes a full-blown adult weight-loss system. Remember, you read it here first:
The Breast Milk Diet
Week One: Consume only human breast milk*
Week Two: Add oatmeal.
Week Three: Collapse into fetal position.
For best results, drink from a straw or, better yet, a nipple.
*Although the FDA doesn't yet regulate Donor Human Milk it strongly cautions against drinking any "acquired directly from individuals or through the Internet."
Cheers. Drink responsibly.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-24-2011 @ 12:00PM
Cindy Shadrick said...Thank you so much for this and the last article you had about breast feeding not being the only option. There are those of us out there, who are really good parents, who chose not to breastfeed for a multitude of reasons.
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2-24-2011 @ 2:27PM
sayso said...I was breast fed and I have breast fed my children but I have always struggled with my weight. Sure it may help but part of it is genetic and the other part is watching what you eat and exercising! As long as you are taking care of your baby then who cares if they are drinking breast milk or formula?!
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2-24-2011 @ 3:19PM
Dee Pizzo said...Polly,
You based your entire argument against breastfeeding on a 10 year study - and a retrospective study at that! While I agree that breastfeeding is not the silver bullet of prevention or cure, it deserves far more insight into the protective benefits that it does provide. Childhood obesity among toddlers and preschool children within the past 15 years implies that there is something more going on than what historically led to "chubby kids". Metabolic programming, which begins in utero, peaks in the few months after birth and continues throughout the first year or so of life, is directly affected by environmental exposures and nutrition. We now know that protein levels in breast milk is considerably lower than in formula, and the modulator of future growth. In other words, to much protein in = too much growth now, and for life. So aside from developing adequate hunger and satiety cues, breast milk actually helps program a healthy metabolism for life.
But to get back to your retrospective study. There will always be obese kids who were breast fed, just like there will always be children who were fed formula that never have a problem with their weight. This is because even the best metabolic blue-print can't protect anyone against the bottom line of obesity: too many calories in, too little out. And the only cure for this is education.
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2-24-2011 @ 3:35PM
Dee said...p.s. @ Cindy: I agree with you 100%. I didn't breastfeed my children, either. I wish I did, especially in view of all I know now. And while I would never judge a mother for not breastfeeding, I do think it should be "gently" encouraged.
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2-24-2011 @ 7:33PM
ursaminor said...I think the writer of these articles must be in the formula companies pockets. Either that or she has guilt for not breastfeeding her own children despite the obvious and proven importance of breastfeeding, and feels the need to defend her poor and selfish decision. Anything written that encourages mothers to breastfeed in this day and age is good. And anything that encourages formula feeding or says it is "okay" is irresponsible and dangerous.
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2-24-2011 @ 11:25PM
Alicia said...Calling formula dangerous is laughable. Stop shaming and alienating women. THAT is truly irresponsible and dangerous. Why can't people just support each other? Why do we constantly judge each other one stupid stuff like this? Who cares how kids are fed as long as they're healthy and happy?
2-24-2011 @ 10:00PM
Melissa said...My three children were breastfed when they were babies. I have a high school education and was working as a waitress. I do not have a gym membership. I am not wealthy or better educated. I did not breast feed my kids because I thought it was cool or that it would cut childhood obesity. I did it because it was the most natural food for them. And guess what... neither of them are fat. Why do writers make such sweeping judgements?
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2-25-2011 @ 2:11AM
AnnaRain said...Why does everyone assume that everything from weight to allergies to mental health and physical well being have to do with whether or not a child was breast fed? It is not that black and white. I was breast fed and I am overweight. My brother was also and he is thin. He has always been prone to illness and I never get sick. I am sure that there are connections but I doubt that breast milk or formula is the only contributing factor towards any of these issues.
I don't produce any milk and I am so tired of having to carry the guilt and shame. I was devastated when I couldn't feed my first born. I was made to feel like less of a mother and a human. I tried everything. I pumped to no avail. I took herbal supplements, tired every suggestion offered to me, had a prescription drug not available in the US shipped from Canada at the insistence of the Lactation Nazi I was exhausted and headed for a nervous breakdown. Once I gave up after two months of trying I was able to finally enjoy my baby. A weight was lifted. My pediatrician pointed out that I was the reason why formula was invented-because in other times in history my baby would have died of starvation (unless I could have found a donor). At 9 my daughter is healthy and happy. She has an IQ of 136. She is a normal weight, well adjusted, doesn't have allergies, doesn't get sick very often. I just had twins and I didn't even consider going through that hell again. I went straight to formula and I don't regret it because I stopped letting myself be pressured by all those that think they know they everything. My twins are the easiest babies in the world-happy and healthy. And they have a mother who is not stressed out-which is the best thing I can give them-my undivided attention. It is these factors that will decided how my children will turn out-the time I spend with them, all the choices I make everyday. not just whether they get breast or bottle.
Why do breast feeding mothers have to be so mean? I am tired of people using studies that they don't understand the limitations of or how to apply the findings to pick out fact that support their own agenda. Stop judging, start supporting each other .I have always supported breast feeding mother's rights to nurse in public and have adequate time and space to pump at work. Yet not one breastfeeding mom supported me in my trials. The men must be laughing now. Women are warring amongst themselves. We have been though enough to get where we are now and yet this is what we have become-nit picking each others choices. I challenge you all to think of where our grandmothers stood.
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3-07-2011 @ 12:05PM
Demeter said...Unfortunately, Polly doesn't include in her story the following quote from the Surgeon General when the report was released:
"Of course, the decision to breastfeed is a personal one,” she added, “no mother should be made to feel guilty if she cannot or chooses not to breastfeed.”
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