Breastfed Kids More Likely to be Trim

October 23, 2010 - 8:35 PDT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY

GLENVIEW, IL (October 23, 2010) - The following is an article by Carol Greer, from the July-August 2010 issue of "Family Foundations," the publication of the Couple to Couple League International (CCL). Carol and her husband Stan are a Natural Family Planning (NFP) Teaching Couple for the League in Fairfax, VA.

Summer is upon us, and our crew is eagerly anticipating the annual Greer family reunion in North Myrtle Beach. Vacation to us means sun, surf, and living in a bathing suit. Fun, but a little intimidating: Nothing gives pause quite like knowing only a thin layer of industrial strength lycra-spandex separates you from the world.

Now that Genevieve is in her third year and nurses only occasionally before bedtime - and I'm currently not pregnant - my body is "normalizing" into a predictable shape and an acceptable weight. Could be better, not terribly bad. It's still weird to look in a mirror, though, and see myself as a person with a medium build instead of a skinny chick. I think we retain our body image from childhood and youth: I shot up to 5-foot-11 by ninth grade, but my weight didn't keep up. I was painfully thin and regularly received instructions from doctors to eat more bananas and to down a glass of Carnation Instant Breakfast a day to supplement my regular diet. Decades, pregnancies, and post-partums later, I'm still too thin in my mind's eye. The mirror says something else, though: I know objectively that I can't eat whatever I want with wild abandon or I'll pile on the pounds.

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Genetics are a factor in a child's predisposition to obesity or being overweight, and in this respect my kids got lucky. Their physiques mirror my husband's and my youthful ones: they're a bushel of string beans. I'm grateful that the weight management hasn't been much of an issue in our house, but it is an issue in many homes today, across the country and increasingly around the world. If you've read a newspaper or watched any television lately, you've been inundated with stories about the problem of obesity in our kids.

Even without statistics to back me up, a trip to buy clothes for the kids lends anecdotal evidence to the growing weight problem among our youth. Years back, I used to be able to pop into a local discount merchandiser for a pair of jeans for my skinny son or daughter and find a pair of slim-cut slacks with little difficulty. It's a bit harder now as I shop for Joe and Louisa. There are plenty of shelves labeled "husky," but the "slims" come far and few between. I often return home empty-handed.

So, how do we help our kids stay out of those plus sizes?

We do our babies a big favor when we breastfeed them. Max was enormous - a beautiful, fleshy baby with massive thighs and a Pillsbury dough-boy stomach. If he had been bottle-fed, his heroic girth might have been a concern, but he was completely breastfed for the first six months of his life, and then continued to nurse for two years. Chubby is nothing to worry about in a breastfed baby, who eats to satisfaction and then may continue to suckle lightly for comfort. A bottle-fed baby, on the other hand, is often encouraged to finish the bottle past the point of satiety, and may not learn from the very first to recognize and obey signals their bodies give them. As well, according to the La Leche League International, the actual chemical composition of breast milk may be less conducive to retention of body fat.

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2001, 12 year-old children who were breastfed for the first six months of life had overweight rates 22 percent lower than formula-fed children. The statistics are even better for those who are breastfed longer, and it appears that babies who enjoyed three months of exclusive breastfeeding were leaner at age 18 (Obese Res, 1999). It's nice to know we're giving our kids a boost in the right direction by our decision to mother them at the breast.

We're Back - Greatest Meat on Earth

Obviously, other factors besides infant feeding contribute to our current obesity problem. Kids lead more sedentary lifestyles these days than they did when we were little. They may be heavily scheduled in activities, but most don't spend the hours of non-goal-oriented activity outside that we used to, just playing or riding a bike or splashing in the pool or lake for fun. Convenience foods contribute to the problem as well.

I guess the final prescription for getting your kiddos off to a good start is to cuddle and nurse your baby, sit down and eat nutritious meals, and then run around and have a good time with your family and friends. That doesn't sound so bad. For my own bathing suit preparation, I try to wiggle a little more when no one is looking. I don't have any academic studies to prove its efficacy.

Natural Family Planning Classes Taught

Classes in Natural Family Planning are taught in 17 locations in the Chicago metro area, including southeast Wisconsin and northeast Indiana. The next series of classes will begin Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010, at 2 p.m., at St. Gerald Parish, 9310 South 55th Ct., Oak Lawn IL 60453, taught by Matt & Susan Jones.

To register, and for a list of classes throughout the U.S., go to CCL International at www.ccli.org, (800) 745-8252. Chicago area NFP information is at www.naturalfamilyplanningchicago.com.

The method taught is the Sympto-Thermal Method, which is also taught via CylePRO software. Sign up for a membership with the Couple to Couple League International at www.ccli.org, and receive "Family Foundations."

Contact

Couple to Couple League of Chicago
http://www.naturalfamilyplanningchicago.com
IL, 60025 US
Monica Cassidy - , (800) 745-8252

Keywords

natural,family,planning,nfp,Chicago,il,breastfeeding,breastfed,obesity,children, nutritious

Category

OTHER

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