Aug 2, 2019
Vidcast: https://youtu.be/hqzQO77p9yE
Common feeding guidelines from children’s hospitals and infant formula manufacturers lead to overweight babies before their first birthdays. This striking conclusion comes from a study by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health..
The Hopkins investigators developed a computer model to see the result of feeding virtual babies from 6 to 12 months according to guidelines from their own hospital, from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, from Enfamil, and from Similac. Every guideline resulted in excessive weight gains by 9 to 11 months even though portion sizes were adjusted according to weight changes.
The virtual babies who remained at healthy weights the longest were those fed the absolute smallest portion sizes of calorie-rich solid foods. This study shows that the feeding guidelines for infants require revision. Until that occurs, parents should aggressively follow their infant’ s weight dialing back the solid foods to keep that number in the normal range.
Marie C. Ferguson, Kelly J. O'Shea, Lawrence D. Hammer, Daniel L. Hertenstein, Nathaniel J. Schwartz, Lucas E. Winch, Sheryl S. Siegmund, Bruce Y. Lee. The Impact of Following Solid Food Feeding Guides on BMI Among Infants: A Simulation Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2019.04.011
#Infants #parenting #obesity #solidfoods