Study reveals that prolonged bottle feeding increases obesity risk in children

May 6th, 2011 - 1:07 am ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

New York, May 5 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A new study has concluded that prolonged bottle feeding in infants increases obesity risk. The study says that if an infant continues to breastfeed up to the age of 2 years, it is likely that at the age of five the baby might be obese.

The study is set to be published in a yet-to-be published edition of The Journal of Pediatrics.

The researchers studied data on about 6,750 children. The study subjects all took part in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort. The researchers compared the weight of children who continued to drink from the feeding bottle at 2 years with those who stopped drinking before the age of 2.

At the age of 5 years, the researchers realized that 23 percent of the children who were still drinking from the feeding bottle were obese. Only 16 percent of those who had stopped drinking from feeding bottle by the age of 2 years were found to be obese at the end of the same period.

The researchers believe that children who use the feeding bottle after the age of two years may be consuming more calories compared to those who do not.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry warns that parents should stop feeding their children from the bottle at the age of 12 months.

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