Mothers affected by gestational diabetes can prevent their children from going on to develop preadolescent obesity by breastfeeding them rather than bottle feeding, research has shown.
Women can also stop their offspring from facing obesity challenges in the future by removing sugary drinks from their children’s diet, a new study has found.
Throughout the trial, Baiyang Sun and a team of researchers looked at the health outcomes of 850 mother-infant dyads exposed to gestational diabetes to assess if breastfeeding and sugary drink consumption can combat preadolescent obesity – having excess body fat between the ages of six and 11 years.
A total of 17.6% of the preadolescents were overweight and 18.2% were moderately obese, the study has revealed.
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The findings have identified that the children’s obesity risk was three times higher when the mother did not breastfeed.
In addition, the children who regularly drank sugary drinks were three times more likely to become obese compared to those who never drink these beverages, the study has reported.
The authors said: “Breastfeeding adequacy and avoidance of sugary beverages in early life are modifiable lifestyle behaviours that may combat preadolescent obesity in infants exposed to gestational diabetes, suggesting potential longer-term benefits on child cardiometabolic health.”
The study was published in the journal Obesity.
