Children who are breastfed for long periods in infancy do not gain benefits by being less overweight or obese than others, researchers say today.
Previous studies have suggested that a greater duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding, i.e. no formula milk, is linked with lower levels of body fat in childhood, but the link has not been confirmed.
Dr Richard Martin of Bristol University, UK, and colleagues carried out an intervention to promote longer exclusive breastfeeding. It involved 17,046 mother-infant pairs at 31 maternity hospitals in Belarus. After about 11.5 years, 81% of the pairs were followed up.
The intervention "substantially increased breastfeeding duration and exclusivity", with 43% exclusively breastfed at three months versus 6% in the no intervention group. At six months, the rates were 7.9% versus 0.6%.
Details appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
At about 11.5 years of age, there were no significant differences between the groups for body mass index, fat and fat-free mass indices, percent body fat, waist circumference, and other measures of fatness. There were also no differences in insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which regulates growth.
"An intervention that succeeded in improving the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding did not prevent overweight or obesity, nor did it affect IGF-I levels at age 11.5 years," state the authors.
"Breastfeeding has many advantages but population strategies to increase the duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding are unlikely to curb the obesity epidemic," they add, pointing out that it has been shown to reduce gastrointestinal infections and eczema.
Martin, R. M. et al. Effects of Promoting Longer-term and Exclusive Breastfeeding on Adiposity and Insulin-like Growth Factor-I at Age 11.5 Years: A Randomized Trial. The Journal of the American Medical Association 13 March 2013 doi:10.1001/jama.2013.167
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