Weighty Matters

There's an interesting study in the journal Pediatrics this month concerning weight gain in infants relative to the likelihood of obestiy by age 3.  Researchers found that rapid weight gain in the first six months increases the chance of obesity by the time the child reaches 3.  Interestingly, whether the child was breastfed or formula-fed made no difference.  They also found that how much a baby weighs at birth, how many pounds the mother gained during pregnancy and the weight of the parents were all non-factors. 

The study followed nearly 560  mother-child pairs.  Importantly, rather than just tracking weight gain, these researchers were the first to measure something called weight-for-length; not just how much the baby weighs but its weight relative to its length.

There's a commonn misperception that children who are fed formula have a greater likelihood of being obese.  But this study suggests that there are many contributing factors to obesity among them, rapid weight gain in infancy.   The researchers didn't examine what causes rapid weight gain but certainly too-frequent feeding can contribute.

When your baby is crying and you don't know why, it's easy to start feeding and hope that it brings comfort to the baby.  And often it does.  But perhaps we shouldn't rush to put the baby on the breast or on the bottle everytime he or she cries.  There are lots of reasons babies cry and it's not always because they're hungry.  Often the baby can be distracted by a toy, a book, music or some such thing. 

Obviously be smart about it.  If the baby is hungry, it's hungry!  And bottom line, check with your pediatrician if you have any questions.