New research: infant nutrition and obesity

Researchers at the UCL Institute of Child Health have demonstrated for the first time in humans that feeding babies enriched milk led to statistically significant increases in body fat at age 5-8 years. The new study is published today online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition . This key finding of the link between overnutrition in infancy and body fat was independent of confounding factors such as maternal Body Mass Index. Fat mass in childhood was 22?38 per cent greater in infants randomised to nutrient-enriched versus standard formula. As increased fat in childhood is a significant risk for obesity in adulthood, the public health implications are profound. The study confirms previous estimates that more than 20 per cent of adult obesity might be caused by overnutrition, or other early excessive weight gain in infancy. The research, led by Professor Atul Singhal, UCL Institute of Child Health, looked at two different randomised, double blind, controlled trials, in which children small for their gestational age were randomly assigned a nutritionally enhanced formula milk, or a standard formula.