Authors

1Nicolás Fernández García, 2Salud Ávalos Giménez

Position

¹Diplomado en Enfermería, especialista en Enfermería Obstétrico-Ginecológica.²Departamento de Enfermería. Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería y Fisioterapia de La Laguna. Campus de Ciencias de la Salud de Ofra, Sta Cruz de Tenerife.

Contact address

C/ José Pons, 10, C2. 38710 Breña Alta, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Contact email: nicolafg2001@yahoo.com

Abstract

At present we are managing an increasing incidence of child obesity in Spain, a matter which presents significant challenges to health care professionals. Likewise, health care authorities are attempting to increase the number of mothers who breastfeed their children given that one of the advantages of this type of feeding is that it helps prevent child obesity.
The aim of this work was to ascertain the status of the relationship between breastfeeding and child obesity with the specific objective of determining whether there is evidence indicating that breastfeeding helps prevent child obesity.
A bibliographic review of articles published since 2005 in the Medline, Cihnal and Chochrane databases was performed, using “breastfeeding” and “obesity” as search words.
Results indicate that most authors determined that breastfeeding is associated with a decreased risk of child obesity. Parent obesity, low social level and parent smoking are factors that may favour child obesity. Furthermore, the duration of breastfeeding, the concentration of leptin in breast milk and weight and BMI moni - toring since birth are factors associated with the risk of child obesity risk.
Health care professionals should provide information regarding the benefits of breastfeeding, as well as the series of factors that contribute to the management of child obesity.

Keywords:

child obesity; breastfeeding; formula; nutritionhealth education

Versión en Español

Título:

¿Ayuda la lactancia materna a prevenir la obesidad infantil?