Breastfeeding and Obesity

This week, first lady, Michelle Obama, went public with her Obesity Initative---a plan to combat our nation's childhood obesity epidemic.  And to be sure we have one.

According to the CDC:

32% of kids aged 2-19 are overweight or obese

38% of Hispanic children are overweight or obese

36% of African American children are overweight or obese

29% of White children are overweight or obese

Leading up to the release of Obama's initiative, several breastfeeding activist groups were pushing for the first lady to make breastfeeding part of the plan to combat obesity.  Why?  Because of several reasons:

Michelle Obama breastfed both her daughters.  She is African American and she was/is a working mother.  Bottom line: they felt she was a good role model, especially for blacks and other minorities who have a high rate of obesity and the lowest rates when it comes to breastfeeding.

The problem with this argument is that there is no concrete evidence to support the fact that formula fed infants turn into obese toddlers, adolescents and adults.  Politicizing Obama for the purpose of breastfeeding is inappropriate.  Perhaps she thought so too because tackling breastfeeding as a means of decreasing obesity was not part of the initiative that she revealed.  Rather, she concentrated on figuring out how to keep kids active in and out of school, and how to provide healthy living information for them and their families.  Those are the real issues.

We do have an obesity problem in this country.  And we do want to do better when it comes to breastfeeding rates.  But this is not the way to do it.  There are so many reasons why children are overweight and so many reasons why women don't breastfeed.  Sometimes the two overlap.  Many new mothers have to go back to work and their workplaces aren't supportive of moms who want to pump.  And going back to work, often means kids spend more time sitting on a couch watching TV and eating junk. 

There are many reasons why kids are obese: not enough parental supervision, not enough awareness of good eating habits and healthy living, not enough exercise, to name a few.

There are many reasons why people, African American, Hispanics and Whites included, don't breastfeed:  the need to go back to work, unsupportive workplaces, an unsupportive federal government that doesn't mandate paid materntiy leaves, not enough awareness of the benefitis of breastfeeding, medical reasons, personal choices made based on family dynamics etc.

Tackling obesity and trying to increase breastfeeding rates are lofty goals.  But tying the two together is nothing more than a ploy.  Using Obama to do so is a tacky political ploy.  Understanding the real issues at hand is so important to solving the problems.  But wasting time and energy focusing on the wrong causes does nothing but delay identifying the real root causes.