Breastfeeding Helps Prevent Obesity in Kids (Yahoo! Finance)

Study Shows the Longer a Woman Breastfeeds, the Less Likely Her Child Will Become Overweight Later
Benefits Accrue to Kids of Overweight Women Who Had Gestational Diabetes

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Breastfeeding longer than three months can cut a child's risk of later becoming overweight or obese by more than 40 percent, if the child was born to an overweight mother diagnosed with diabetes during her pregnancy, according to a study published in the May issue of Diabetes Care.


Researchers in Germany found that the longer a woman breastfed, the less likely her child was to become overweight or obese before the age of 8. The study included 324 children born between 1995-2000 to women with gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes refers to a condition that occurs when a woman who has never been diagnosed with diabetes exhibits high blood sugar levels during her pregnancy. This type of diabetes, which affects roughly 4 percent of all pregnant women, goes away after the baby is born but both mother and child are at increased risk for type 2 diabetes later in life.



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