Breastfeeding may not Prevent Childhood Obesity According to Study in Belarus

While some reports have indicated that breastfeeding may improve mental functioning in children, it doesn't necessarily protect against childhood obesity, according to a new study.

"It's just a reality check that in itself, promoting breastfeeding, while a good thing and will have other health benefits, is unlikely to have any effects on stemming the obesity epidemic," said the study's lead author, Richard Martin, from the University of Bristol, UK.

Past reports had suggested that babies who are breastfed are less likely to grow up to be obese children. Yet those studies compared with mothers who chose whether or not to breastfeed have held different implications, according to Reuters.  

The new study looked at approximately 17,000 mothers and their infants in Belarus, with which half were initiated to breastfeed by their healthcare provider.

All mothers originally breastfed their babies, so the study was meant to compare how long infants were breastfed, rather than whether they were breastfed at all, Martin noted.

However, while the most continued with breastfeeding (43 percent) only six percent of the comparison group did. Their research even found that the group encouraged to breast feed had fewer stomach infections and eczema and better thinking and memory skills than those in the comparison group.

Yet, when comparing weight and body fat in about 14,000 of the children tracked to age 11, researchers found no differences tied to breastfeeding, with between 14 and 16 percent of all the teenagers overweight and five percent obese, according to reports from the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Some are still skeptical of the study, and believe that breastfeeding is the best bet for all mothers. For instance, Dr. Ruth Lawrence, a breastfeeding researcher from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, said she still believes that starting breastfeeding in the first place can help ward off obesity, nothing that past studies have shown breastfed babies have more appetite control than those started on formula, for example.