The March issue of Pediatrics presents some startling if unexplained findings about infant health. Researchers who conducted a study of 847 babies in eastern Massachusetts found that there was a 6.3 fold increase in the likelihood that a child would be obese at age three if a bottle-fed infant began eating solid foods before four months of age compared to bottle-fed infants who began eating solid foods after four months. The timing of solid food introduction did not increase the probability of obesity in breast-fed children.
The study authors had difficulty explaining their results.
ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross is equally perplexed, acknowledging that, “The numbers seem quite significant. However, I don’t understand why children who breast-feed and eat solid foods early on would have such different outcomes from babies who are only bottle-fed and eat solids early on. But the data are hard to argue with.”
For some infants, solid food too early may have hefty consequences
The March issue of Pediatrics presents some startling if unexplained findings about infant health. Researchers who conducted a study of 847 babies in eastern Massachusetts found that there was a 6.3 fold increase in the likelihood that a child would be obese at age three if a bottle-fed infant began eating solid foods before four months of age compared to bottle-fed infants who began eating solid foods after four months.
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