Friday, August 19, 2005

Duration of Breastfeeding Linked to Lower Risk of Later Overweight (MedPage Today)

BERLIN, Aug. 18-The longer an infant is breastfed, the less likely the child is to become overweight later in life.

So concluded German researchers on the basis of a meta-analysis that extends earlier research pointing to breastfeeding's benefit.

For every month of breastfeeding -- up to nine months -- the risk of being overweight was reduced by 4% (odds ratio 0.96/month of breastfeeding, 95% CI: 0.94, 0.98), reported Thomas Harder, M.D., of University Medicine here and colleagues in the September issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"The duration of breastfeeding is inversely and linearly associated with the risk of overweight," the investigators wrote. This effect lasted up to nine months, after which the benefit leveled off.


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