Weaning a year-old baby from the bottle is never easy for parents, but new research may give them further motivation to keep at it.
A large new study finds that kids who were still being put to bed with a bottle of milk at age two were more than 30 per cent more likely to be obese by the time they were five.
The study authors conclude that prolonged bottle use may lead to the child taking in too many calories each day. It may also train the children -- and perhaps their parents -- to use food and drink to comfort the children.
The study, published Thursday in the Journal of Pediatrics, looked at 6,750 U.S. youngsters born in 2001 who were part of a larger study called the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort.
Among the kids, 22 per cent were still using a bottle at the age of two, either as their primary drink container, or were being put to bed with a bottle. About one in six of them were using the bottle just during the day; the rest were either using it at bedtime and the day, or just at bedtime.
That's despite recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics that parents avoid putting their child to bed with a bottle to prevent tooth decay. The Canadian Paediatric Society also recommends beginning the transition to a sippy cut after six months and, if needed, using water in a baby bottle at bedtime.
When the researchers from Temple University in Pennsylvania took measurements of the children at five-and-a-half years old, almost 23 per cent of the prolonged bottle users were obese.
Among the five-and-a-half-year-olds who were not bottle feeders at age two, 16 per cent were considered obese.
The researchers adjusted their results to take into account other factors that have been linked to child obesity, such as the mother's weight, the child's birth weight and feeding practices in infancy. They still found a clear link between prolonged bottle use and obesity at the age of five.
The study authors say toddlers still using a bottle at two are likely taking in too many calories. They estimate that a 24-month-old girl of average weight and height put to bed with an 8-ounce bottle of whole milk would receive about 12 per cent of her daily caloric needs from that bottle. But those calories are likely on top of a full day's calories already eaten throughout the day.
"To the extent that some calories obtained from the bottle are in excess of the child's needs, this could contribute to weight gain over time," the authors write.
"Prolonged bottle use may lead to the child consuming excess calories, particularly when parents are using the bottle to comfort the child rather than to address the child's hunger or nutritional needs," they added.
The authors suggest that pediatricians and family doctors work with parents to find acceptable solutions for ending bottle use at the child's first birthday.
The study was funded by the Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
