Literature review for - Flourish Paediatrics

The WHO Euro Division reached the following conclusions
on Overweight and Infant
Feeding
(WHO European Region 2007)
Substantial evidence indicatess that breastfeeding offers a small but significant protective
effect against later childhood and adolescent overweight. Large-scale studies have shown
elevated
levels of overweight among children at school entry age (5 or 6 years old) who had
been formula-fed as infants compared with the breastfed (von Kries, K Koletzko et al. 1999)),
with a dose-dependent effect according too the duration of breastfeeding. A sample of 32 000
preschool children showed lower prevalence of obesity among those t who had been breastfed
after adjusting for socioeconomic status, birth weight and gender (Armstrong and Reilly
2002) A longitudinal study found an elevated likelihood of obesity amongg children aged 2–6
years who had been
bottle-fed; although mothers’ smoking behaviour, BMI and
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