By Reuters Staff NEW YORK

Reuters Health

Obese girls that breastfeed their kids for not less than 4 months are less likely to retain their pregnancy weight, as outlined by new research from U.S. nutritionists.

The researchers write while in the journal Pediatrics which the benefit may be as a result of lactation creating the body of burning extra energy.

\”This study implies that improving adherence to breastfeeding recommendations can help you reduce long-term maternal weight retention among obese mothers,\” write the researchers, led by Andrea Sharma on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

Several studies have demonstrated benefits for kids from breastfeeding, which include reduced obesity risk later when they were young. A work published during the same issue of the journal also found out that breastfed students are prone to eat veggies and fruits and much about to consume sugary drinks like soda.

Other papers published in this issue of the journal also saw that eating routine in infancy may establish long-term patterns for children’s health.

One study found children who drink sugary drinks during their 1st year of life tend to drink those types of beverages at the age of six. Another tied eating too few veggies and fruits during infancy to eating diminished amount of those at six yoa.

Still another study found that mothers who encourage their children to empty their bottles during infancy tend to pressure those children to enjoy more down the line.

Less is well known, though, about whether or how breastfeeding may influence the extra weight of the latest mothers years after their own kids is born.

For the latest study, the group used data from previous research on breastfeeding conducted between 2005 and 2007. They included and compared data around the weight of 726 women from them third trimester of childbearing to years as they gave birth.

At time, the recommendations in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was for brand spanking new mothers to breastfeed for the fresh from the child\’s life, while using the child’s sole method of obtaining nutrition inside the first four months of life being breastfeeding alone.

The AAP has updated their recommendation since the data was collected, and already advises a year of breastfeeding with the first few months being exclusively breastfeeding.

Overall, 29 percent from the women within the study exclusively breastfed to the first four months of the child\’s life and approximately 20 percent exclusively breastfed for 4 months and after that continued to breastfeed not less than a year.

For ladies that were considered normal weight or overweight, breastfeeding in accordance with the guidelines at that time couldn\’t appear to be linked to just how much weight they retained after delivery.

Obese women, however, retained about 18 fewer pounds after their pregnancy once they followed the principles as opposed to those who never breastfed.

Women should preferably gain a couple pounds while pregnant, but about 50 % get more weight in comparison with should, the study write.

Doctors may be better taught to help obese women achieve their breastfeeding goals, the research team indicates, adding which the likelihood of breastfeeding is bound to variables like hospital lactation support. There may be a spotlight place on those types of programs to boost breastfeeding rates among obese women, they say.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/WgsyqN Pediatrics, online September 2, 2014.