Breastfeeding vs formula feeding: BMI, health and food variety

Two totally different studies (1 in N Carolina, USA and 1 in Iceland/Denmark) aimed to increase the understanding of the connection between infant feeding, body weight and health. Gunnarsdottir c.s. in Iceland and Denmark looked at infants who received longer or shorter periods then 2 months of exclusive breastfeeding and found in Denmark more convincing than in Iceland a link between a shorter duration of exclusive breastfeeding and a higher BMI at age 6 and 12 months. They concluded that lifestyle and the sort of family foods probably are as important as which milk feeding an infant got. Strong & Strong did some more curious research: they asked themselves if the more varied tastes experience through breastfeeding would lead to a greater variation in tastes for fruits and vegetables in 2 and 3 year old toddlers. The results showed that higher educated mothers tended to have a lower BMI and to breastfeed more and that children ate a greater variation of fruits and vegetables. Their conclusion was that breastfeeding does not influence the development of taste. Stunning how you can make numbers say anything you like. Another hypothesis to explain the risk for overweight is that breastfed children can self-regulate their food intake (and will continue to do so) and bottle-fed children don’t. Li et al studied the validity of this hypothesis. The results showed that children fed by bottle (no matter the contents) later on are more prone to empty the bottle or cup they get served then children who are breastfed from birth. The ability to stop feeding if hunger and thirst are satisfied is an important protective factor in maintaining a healthy body weight.
Li R, Fein SB, Grummer-Strawn LM: Do Infants Fed From Bottles Lack Self-regulation of Milk Intake Compared With Directly Breastfed Infants? PEDIATRICS Vol. 125 No. 6 June 2010, pp. e1386-e1393
Gunnarsdottir I, Schack-Nielsen L, Fleischer Michaelsen K, Sørensen T, Thorsdottir I: Infant weight gain, duration of exclusive breast-feeding and childhood BMI ? two similar follow-up cohorts. Public Health Nutrition(2010), 13:201-207
Strong LCA, Strong E, West D, Brouwer R, Ostbye T, Lovelady C: Relationship of early infant feeding (breast vs. formula) and fruit and vegetable variety in dietary intake of 2–3 year olds. FASEB J. 24: 556.16