Feeding practices in infancy and prevalence of obesity in preschool children

Abstract

The parents of 262 infants were interviewed. The age of each infant at the introduction of solid foods and whether he/she was breast fed were recorded. Four years later, as many as possible of the heights and the weights of the children were collected. More than 80% of the parents introduced solid foods during the first 2 months of life. Breast-fed infants were given solid foods later than formula-fed infants for the most part. The longer the duration of breast feeding, the later solids were likely to be introduced. However, the time of the introduction of solids was not related to the prevalence of obesity. Neither breast feeding itself nor the duration of breast feeding related to the prevalence of obesity in the children studied.