健康英语新闻:Study links obesity with prolonged bottle feeding

LOS ANGELES, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Limiting prolonged bottle use in children may be an effective way to help prevent obesity, a new study suggests.

For the study, researchers from the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University (CORETU) and the Ohio State University College of Public Health analyzed data from 6,750 children to estimate the association between bottle use at 24 months of age and the risk of obesity at 5.5 years of age, according to the Science Daily on Friday.

Of the children studied, 22 percent were prolonged bottle users, meaning that at two years of age they used a bottle as their primary drink container and/or were put to bed with a calorie- containing bottle.

The findings showed that nearly 23 percent of the prolonged bottle users were obese by the time they were 5.5 years old.

"Children who were still using a bottle at 24 months were approximately 30 percent more likely to be obese at 5.5 years, even after accounting for other factors such as the mother's weight, the child's birth weight, and feeding practices during infancy," said Dr. Robert Whitaker at CORETU, lead author of the study.

Drinking from a bottle beyond infancy may contribute to obesity by encouraging the child to consume too many calories, the researchers noted.

"A 24-month-old girl of average weight and height who is put to bed with an eight-ounce bottle of whole milk would receive approximately 12 percent of her daily caloric needs from that bottle," explained co-author Rachel Gooze.

Gooze noted that weaning children from the bottle by the time they are one year of age is unlikely to cause harm and may prevent obesity. The authors suggested that pediatricians and other health professionals work with parents to find acceptable solutions for stopping bottle use at the child's first birthday.

The findings adds new evidence to the theory that obesity prevention should begin before children enter school, the researchers said.