Excessive weight gain in exclusively breast-fed infants.

Abstract

Breastfeeding is recommended as the best source of nutrition in the first months of life and observational studies have associated exclusive breastfeeding with decreased weight gain and a protective effect against obesity in childhood. The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of a cohort of exclusively breastfed obese infants to determine factors that may lead to this unusual weight gain. Infants seen between 2003 and 2015 who were exclusively breastfed and showed excessive weight gain in the first year of life were followed with a focus on features of the mother, the child, feeding patterns and the presence of concomitant factors that influence nutritional status. Additionally, in a subset of the sample, macronutrients of the maternal breast milk were analyzed. A descriptive, prospective cross-sectional study was conducted. Of 73 patients, 63% were girls. At 3 months of life, 64% had a weight-for-height standard deviation score (SDS) >2. At 6 and at 12 months, 100% of the patients had a weight-for-height >2 SDS. The mean age at semisolid-food introduction was 7 months. The mean age at weaning was 15.8 months. The babies were fed on demand and no hunger-satiety pattern was observed. In the breast milk samples analyzed, a significantly lower fat content was found. The results of our study lead to the assumption that inter-individual variations in mother's milk composition may affect the growth patterns of children.