The Connection Between Breastfeeding and Child Obesity

It seems as though breastfeeding is a large part of the breakthrough that will put an end to an epidemic once anticipated to last indefinitely. Perhaps this new reason to encourage a mother to breast feed her child will be able to slow the rate of child obesity and type 2 diabetes. Due to a significant new discovery, it has been declared by the American Diabetes Association that there is “new evidence that helps us understand how overweight parents pass along diabetes to their children.”

It has virtually always been agreed upon by doctors, chemists and researchers alike that breastfeeding has wonderful benefits for your child, especially upon his or her overall developmental health. Nonetheless, it seems as though the ADA has discovered another reason to add to the list of this virtually universal recommendation for motherhood.

The Harvard School of Public Health held a recent study into this matter – the study suggests that children who are breastfed by their mothers during the first year of life are less likely to develop obesity as they get older. And, of course, when a child does suffer from obesity, he or she is much likelier to develop type 2 diabetes. For the sake of her child’s health both as a child and throughout his or her life, breastfeeding is the very best possible thing you can do when your child is young.

So, why is it that breastfeeding will make such a difference in a child’s weight? It is a good question to ask. When a child is breastfed they are less likely to develop obesity simply because they are fed when the mother responds to the baby’s natural cries of hunger. When a child is not breastfeeding – they have a set schedule for feedings and certain amounts of formula to be taken as a part of that schedule.

When a child is breastfed he or she will feed until they are full and not until the bottle of formula is empty. The hope is that this will be one of the essential elements to a completely natural means of depleting what has been one of America’s major health concerns.

The most recent research from the American Diabetes Association and other sources, as I have said before, is just another reason to encourage every mother to breastfeed if breastfeeding is at all an option. With one, simple and natural answer to the question of this duo of major health conditions that develop in a child’s early years, perhaps we will be on our way to a much healthier world for our children. Later on, in retrospect, the overall health of the nation and the end to the epidemic of obesity in children will be diminished.