formula making babies fat?

[Janidog]

Im just a bit curious but does anyone have any evidence about how long are you meant to BF for, for the obesity, asthma, eczema etc........ benefits to actually have any affect on you as an adult? Is it the 6month rule or would you have to BF for longer for your LO to gain the benefits from your breast milk?

 

[Dragonfly]

I did read it was long term breastfeeding that helped more. My son has only had the sniffles once where as me and the OH are sick at a change in weather. I see the benefits in my son though.

 

[Carrie76]

It is my understanding that it is possible for a baby to be overfed with a bottle - be it formula or EBM - as they are not in full control.

This is what I always though but I know for Ethan he will just point blank close his mouth and refuse to take anymore of his bottle if he is full, lol

 

[OmarsMum]

Im just a bit curious but does anyone have any evidence about how long are you meant to BF for, for the obesity, asthma, eczema etc........ benefits to actually have any affect on you as an adult? Is it the 6month rule or would you have to BF for longer for your LO to gain the benefits from your breast milk?

According to my religion it's 2 years, then babies should be weaned. It's mentioned in the Quran for the past 1431 years.

I guess the WHO also states 2 years with 6 mnths as the minimum.

 

[mandylou]

yeah just so many are not fat who where formula fed, well i am fat and formula fed and so are a lot I know and I also know skinny poeple who are formula fed. Kinda futile is right.

I swear everything my other half eats goes to my hips. but then he has chrons so is skinny.

i know what you mean, my OH keeps complaining that he's loosing weight - he's like a stick!

btw i was ff and im overweight too, but thats my fault

 

[Dragonfly]

yeah just so many are not fat who where formula fed, well i am fat and formula fed and so are a lot I know and I also know skinny poeple who are formula fed. Kinda futile is right.

I swear everything my other half eats goes to my hips. but then he has chrons so is skinny.

i know what you mean, my OH keeps complaining that he's loosing weight - he's like a stick!

btw i was ff and im overweight too, but thats my fault

I blame chocolate

 

[bambino156]

I don't think its the formula that will make a baby fat, its the parent. It is too easy to overfeed a bottle fed baby, eg if baby pulls away and you then offer the bottle again a moment later the baby will probably have another couple of sucks because its there, not because they actually want it.
I also think a baby could be bf for god knows how long, but if you're gonna feed them rubbish when they are older it makes no difference how they were fed as a baby.
Lifestyle is also a major factor imo, if a kid is going to sit in front of the xbox or whatever for hours on end each day then, yes, they are more likely to be overweight.
The rest of it, imo, has alot to do with genetics!

 

[Blah11]

I think some formula using parents get obsessed with th enumber of Ozs their baby is or should be drinking and that can cause them to overfeed

 

[OmarsMum]

I think some formula using parents get obsessed with th enumber of Ozs their baby is or should be drinking and that can cause them to overfeed

Hi hun. It's the same with BFing, u can never overfeed a FF baby as they get sick if they take more. Mine always took much less than the recomended & if I try to give him more than what he can take he will get sick. The same with moms with hungry babies who take more than the recomended, they switch to hungrier baby formula to control quantities or start early weaning because of it.

 

[Blah11]

Well, no its not the same with BF. BF babies wont take more than they need because they need to work way harder to get the milk out. You cant overfeed a breastfed baby.

 

[Blah11]

Oops, just realised this isin the FF section

 

[OmarsMum]

Well, no its not the same with BF. BF babies wont take more than they need because they need to work way harder to get the milk out. You cant overfeed a breastfed baby.

Believe me, there r odd cases even with BFing. My cousin's daughter was born at the 2nd percentile & she went off the charts at 3 mnths. She was exclusively BF & he Dr. was really concerned & recomended feeding her on schedule as she was taking much more than she needed.

The same with my cousin. He was the chubbiest baby I've ever seen & he was exclusively BF & again my aunt was advised to wean at 3 mnths (10 yrs back) to control his milk intake.

My whole family r pro- bfing & I've seen lots of bfed babies & they all came in different sizes & shapes.

Hungry babies r hungry babies regardless what they'r fed. xx

 

[MrsVenn]

I just go with whatever my LO wants - she has 5 feeds a day and I know how much she'll take roughly. I don't seem able to overfeed her as she pushes the bottle out with such disgust when she's had enough, I wouldn't even think about ramming it back in her mouth. I think a child's/teenager's/adult's diet, genes and lifestyle play a big role in obesity. Personally I don't think formula can be linked so easily. For instance, I was FF and not overweight, infact I was underweight for many years. The rest of my family are all overweight and all were BF exclusively so I'm the exception to the rule. My DH was BF and chubby as a child so I think it just depends on the individual and isn't linked to how they were fed as a baby, but I'm basing that opinion on what I've seen.

 

[bathbabe]

i havnt read any other replies but.... What crap!

 

[Frufru]

This article is in the Daily Mail.... nuff said

 

[freckleonear]

The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it just happened to be reported in the Daily Mail amongst many other sources. Here's a link to the abstract.

https://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/ab...al&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

 

[maisiemoo]

https://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/09September/Pages/bottle-feeding-obesity-link.aspx

Here's a quote from the above link, which comments on the research the daily mail/express based its article on:

Conclusion

These two well-conducted studies show that small for gestational age (SGA) babies who were fed enriched formula to promote rapid growth had higher proportions of body fat in later childhood. However, as the authors note, a causal link has not been established. It is possible that genetic factors influenced the babies’ appetites and, therefore, “overfeeding” and later obesity. It is interesting to note that among breastfed babies, those who grew more rapidly also had higher fat mass later.

As the authors note, the study had several limitations:

* Most importantly, the study had a poor follow-up rate. In study 1, 51.2% of the children were followed up, and in study 2 only 36.6% were followed up. Although these studies had large sample sizes initially, in any randomised controlled trial a completion rate of above 80% would be expected in order to increase the reliability of the results.
* The study involved SGA babies. It is not clear if the findings would apply to babies of normal birth weight.
* It is possible that there were inaccuracies in the techniques used to measure body fat, which is not a measure of obesity.
* It is also possible that the children’s diets after bottle feeding influenced the later fat measurement.

 

[Aidan's Mummy]

Can I ask a question that I mean in no way to be horrible. If a BF baby can't be overfed. Why are there some BF babies that are in the higher percentile etc? I know all babies are differant etc. I have seen children overweight that were FF and Children overwieght that were BF.
xx

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I think it's an interesting question really. Ruby was FF after 3 weeks of excl. expressing, was born on the 25th centile and was on the 99.6th by 3 months. Before she became mobile she did look quite chubby. She has the height to go with it and is obviously mobile now so she doesn't look at all chubby anymore, but I often wonder what her her weight would be like if she had been / was BF. She always drained her bottles and was satisfied, but I wonder if she really needed that much milk. It is so easy for babies to bottlefeed they do sometimes carry on sucking for comfort after they have had enough.

Who knows, I may have found that she fed constantly if BF had worked out but maybe she would have stopped drinking sooner and been lighter.

Back to my earlier post, without 2 identical babies to study you can never know whether there is actually a causal link between bottlefeeding and being overweight.

 

[Eala]

Maisiemoo - thanks for that link, very informative. Saved me wading through the entire study myself

My HV actually said to me at one point that if I had been able to keep BF'ing my LO, I might have had to consider formula top-ups anyway. Even being on formula (with some EBM for a little while), she went off the bottom of the growth charts for a while

I think people are continually forgetting 2 points in this thread though. First is that this study is talking about specific "high energy formula" which has up to 43% more protein and 12% more "energy" (calories?) than "normal" formula. I don't even know if that is hungry baby milk, it's more like a special formula for children who really need their calorific intake boosted, isn't it?

The second is that babies are on milk for such a short time, really. I can't remember who it was (sorry) but someone said that they were FF and fat, but went on to say that they had a crap diet as a child and were being fed pizza etc etc. Well surely the crap diet as a toddler/small child had more impact than being on formula!

As for not over-feeding a BF baby, what about when they are comfort sucking? Or when babies of older than a year (just an example) are still wanting to feed through the night, again for the comfort of it, and because they like the taste? I know BM is easily broken down, but that's still calories which, arguably, they don't "need".

Rather than this being about FF vs BF, it should be about "when my baby is weaning/weaned, what healthy foods can I give him/her, and how can I encourage exercise"! As those are two of the main factors contributing to obesity, from where I'm sitting