Breastfeeding

Fighting obesity starts with your baby’s diet

“What you feed your baby and toddler could be the key to controlling their waistline as they grow through childhood and into adulthood,” according to the University of Michigan.

Here are the highlights of the article.

  • Breastfeeding protects against obesity risk later in life
  • Seek help from a pediatrician or a lactation consultant if difficulty develops
  • Begin solid food no sooner than four to six months of age
  • A child?s first flavor experience should be something healthy
  • The more a child tastes a particular food, the more they’ll like it
  • Don’t make sweets their first experience with solid food
  • Encourage eating a wide variety of foods

Before childbirth?

  • Nursing moms should be vigilant about the foods they eat
  • Women who drank carrot juice through pregnancy had infants who enjoyed pureed carrots more at four months of age than those children whose mothers did not drink carrot juice during pregnancy.

There’s more good information here, here, and here.

Drawing: Richmond Health Services

9/11/06 19:20 JR

Hi, I’m JR

John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.