September 8, 2022 – Parents who give their children lactose-reduced formula milk may prepare their children for an increased risk of childhood obesity, which is new. Research offers.
Researchers for a long time established Babies who drink babies Equation instead of Breast milk already bear high risk of obesity. But the new study found a difference in formula type and childhood obesity outcomes.
Children younger than 1 year of age who received a lactose-reduced formula made partly from solid corn syrup had a 10% risk of obesity by age 2 compared to children who received a regular cow’s milk formula.
“This is another reason not to use a low-lactose formula,” says Mark R. Corkins, MD, chief of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis, Tennessee. “Parents think that if babies are fussy, or spit up, they are lactose intolerant, but if you look at the actual numbers, lactose intolerance in infants is rare.”
Corkins says many parents come to him with complaints that their children are fussy or spit up, and they think theirs are. lactose intolerant.
“The reason low-lactose formulas come on the market is because parents want them and think their baby is lactose intolerant, but they aren’t,” says Corkins, adding that he usually tries to connect these parents with lactation support services such as peer programs that can help facilitate the breastfeeding process. .
Researchers from the WIC Program in Southern California and the University of Southern California analyzed data from more than 15,000 infants in Southern California. All were enrolled in the Women’s, Infants, and Children’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program (WIC), a federal food assistance program that provides healthy foods and breastfeeding support to low-income pregnant women or new mothers and their children up to age 5.
Posted in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition On August 23, records for babies born between September 2012 and March 2016 were separated into two groups: babies who stopped breastfeeding by the third month and started to reduce their lactose formula, and babies who received all other forms of formula milk. More than 80% of the children in both groups were Hispanic.
Children who received a low-lactose formula with a solid corn syrup formula had an 8% risk of obesity by age 3 compared to children who received a regular cow’s milk formula, and the risk was increased by 7% by age 4.
Tara Williams, M.D., a specialist in breastfeeding medicine at the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the findings should make pediatricians, parents and others stop and consider what infant formula contains.
She explained that children who receive formula milk have a higher risk of obesity than children who are breastfed in general. But research into the effects of different types of combinations is relatively new. She said there may be several reasons for the link between low lactose and a solid corn syrup formula and an increased risk of obesity.
“Adding corn syrup really starts teaching this kid to like sweet things,” Williams said, which in turn can lead to less healthy eating habits in childhood and adulthood.
Or perhaps parents who tend to give their children a lactose-reduced formula are less likely to tolerate younger children, and end up feeding their children more, Williams hypothesized.
Additionally, emerging research shows that corn syrup may work differently than other sugars in gut microbiome It is metabolized in the liver, resulting in overweight.
Although parents make individual decisions about the type of formula they feed their children, states play a large role in these choices. In 2018, 45% of children in the United States were eligible for it WIC, which is funded through the federal government but administered by the states. State WIC programs solicit bids from manufacturers of fixtures, then select products are replaced at retailers by parents.
“Now that we’re starting to see an indication that some formulas may have an additional potential obesity risk for participants, states may say that when we help mothers choose between formulas, we need to be very explicit about this additional,” says Christopher Anderson, Ph. Research Associate at Public Health Enterprise WIC in California and lead author of the study.
Williams says more research is needed to do similar analysis in other populations to draw cause-and-effect conclusions, while Corkins says he’d like to see more research on the amount of formula taken and associations with types of formula.
“We know that once you register with Target’s Children’s Registry, you get formula samples in the mail; you’re marketed very aggressively, it’s a $55 billion industry,” Williams said. And their goal is to sell their products, not promote children’s health.
“This research is sure to make us stop and think about what we feed our children in the United States and how we allow companies to market their products.”
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