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Early infant feeding practice and childhood obesity: the relation of breast-feeding and timing of solid food introduction with childhood obesity

  • Aysel Vehapoglu EMAIL logo , Mebrure Yazıcı , Ayşegul Dogan Demir , Serdar Turkmen , Mustafa Nursoy and Emin Ozkaya
Published/Copyright: August 5, 2014

Abstract

Objective: We assessed the association of breast-feeding and timing of solid food introduction with childhood obesity.

Methods: The children were grouped according to the duration of breast-feeding (0–1, 2–6, 7–12, 13–18, and 19–24 months) and the age at which solid foods were introduced (<4, 4–5, and ≥6 months).

Results: In this study, we enrolled 4990 children aged 2–14 years. The rate of exclusive breast-feeding at 6 months of age was 49.1%. We found no association between the duration of breast-feeding and childhood obesity [odds ratio (OR) 0.948, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.694–1.295]. The regression analysis revealed no significant differences in obesity or overweight rates between the early and late introduction to solid food groups (OR 0.993, 95% CI 0.645–1.531).

Conclusions: Although breastfeeding has been previously reported to protect against childhood obesity, we were unable to find a significant association between obesity and either longer duration of breastfeeding or later introduction to solid foods in our sample.


Corresponding author: Aysel Vehapoglu, Department of Pediatrics, Bezmialem Vakıf University, School of Medicine, Vatan Street, Fatih, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey, Mobile: +90 532 5133014, Fax: +90 212 6217577, E-mail:
aConceptualized and designed the study, and drafted the initial manuscript.bReviewed and revised the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript as submitted.cSupervised the statistics.dMade critical revision to the manuscript for important intellectual content.

Acknowledgments

The authors of this article would like to thank the mothers and children who participated in the study.

Conflict of interest: The other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Funding source: No funding was secured for this study.

Financial disclosure: None of the authors have financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.

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Received: 2014-4-2
Accepted: 2014-5-23
Published Online: 2014-8-5
Published in Print: 2014-11-1

©2014 by De Gruyter

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