Maternal overweight impacts infant feeding patterns—the STEPS Study

• Published in: European journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 68; no. 1; pp. 43 - 49
• Main Authors: Mäkelä, J, Vaarno, J, Kaljonen, A, Niinikoski, H, Lagström, H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.01.2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/443/319/1488; 692/699/1702/393; 692/700/1720; Body Mass Index; Body Weight; Breast Feeding; Breastfeeding & lactation; Census; Child development; Child, Preschool; Children; Clinical Nutrition; Epidemiology; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Health aspects; Human growth; Humans; Infant; Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Internal Medicine; Male; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolic Diseases; Mothers; Obesity; Odds Ratio; original-article; Overweight - epidemiology; Pediatric Obesity - epidemiology; Pregnancy; Prospective Studies; Public Health; Weaning; Finland; infant growth; complementary feeding; full breastfeeding; overweight; breast feeding; obesity
• ISSN: 0954-3007; 1476-5640; 1476-5640
• DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2013.229

Objectives: We examined how maternal overweight impacts full breastfeeding (BF), total duration of BF and the age of introduction of complementary foods (CFs) and whether these have effect on children’s growth from 0 to 2 years. Subjects/Methods: From 1797 families participating in the STEPS Study, 848 children had data on BF and anthropometric data at 13 months and 2 years of age and were included in this study. Data on BF and CFs were collected using a self-administered follow-up diary. Information regarding maternal weight, height, pregnancy and delivery were received from maternity clinics and the National Longitudinal Census Files. The children’s weight and length/height were recorded during the study visits at 13 months and 2 years. Results: Overweight women breastfed fully (2.2 vs 2.8 months, P <0.0001) and totally (7.4 vs 9.0 months, P <0.0001) for a shorter time and introduced CFs earlier (4.1 vs 4.3 months, P =0.02) than normal weight women. Children of overweight women were heavier and had a higher body mass index at 2 years than children of normal weight women. At 2 years of age 30% of boys and 17% of girls were overweight or obese. However, children’s obesity risk was not increased by maternal overweight (odds ratio (OR) 1.04, P =0.12). Longer duration of full BF (OR 0.86, P =0.04) and partial BF (OR 0.91, P =0.02) and delayed introduction of CFs (OR 0.69, P =0.03) were protective against obesity. Conclusions: Our study suggests that women who were overweight or obese before pregnancy breastfed for a shorter time and introduced CFs earlier than normal weight women, which may further impact children’s growth.