Breastfeeding better for weight than pumping, study says

Story highlightsBreastfeeding directly was linked to slower weight gain at 3 months compared with pumping breast milk into a bottleNo matter how babies were fed, breast milk was still linked to lower BMI scores (CNN)Research has already shown a link between breastfeeding and lower obesity risk for babies. But a new study finds another association: “Breast is best” for them even compared with giving babies breast milk out of the bottle. The benefits of direct breastfeeding included slower weight gain and lower BMI scores at 3 months, according to a Canadian study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.Still, even pumped breast milk was superior to none at all, in line with past research.”Moms who pump go through a lot of effort to do that, and I wouldn’t want them to get the impression that it’s not worth it. But it does raise the question of, if pumped milk is not the same or not as good, why is that? And what should we be doing to support moms better around breastfeeding if that’s what they want to do?” said study author Meghan Azad, research scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.The countries where 1 in 5 children are never breastfedOf more than 2,500 infants from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development study, those with the lowest BMI scores at 12 months were those who were breastfed — without formula — and who started eating other foods around 5 to 6 months. (The researchers did not distinguish how infants were fed breast milk past the 3-month outcomes.)Read MoreResearchers say this could impact children’s risk of becoming overweight or developing obesity down the line. The new study found that stopping breastfeeding before 6 months was linked to faster weight gain, a higher body mass index at 12 months and three times the risk of being overweight compared with exclusive breastfeeding.”Other data has shown quite nicely that if you have an elevated (BMI) early on in life, it sets you up for childhood and then adolescent obesity later on in life,” said Lars Bode, director of the Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Mother-Milk-Infant Center of Research Excellence at the University of California San Diego. The mechanism behind why breastfeeding could be superior to pumping is yet unclear, if indeed a causal link to BMI is ultimately found, Bode noted. Perhaps something happens to breast milk components when it is refrigerated, frozen or thawed. Perhaps the act of suckling allows babies to better control the amount they’re consuming. (Study data did not test breast milk nor measure the amount consumed.)Nevertheless, researchers say the study reinforces benefits of breast milk, and they’re sending a message to policymakers about parental leave and support for breastfeeding.The WHO breastfeeding resolution behind the debate In the United States, “many moms, they have to go back to work after a few weeks, so if they want to continue providing breast milk, they have to do it by pumping,” said Azad.”The United