Day care babies gain more weight: Study

Kim and co-investigator Dr Karen E Peterson, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, analysed data on child care arrangements, feeding practices and weight gain collected for 8,150 infants who were nine months old. More than half of these children received regular childcare from someone other than a parent.

The researchers found that the roughly 40 per cent of infants placed in childcare when they were younger than three months of age were less likely to have been breastfed and more likely to begin to eat solid foods earlier than infants cared for by their parents.

There is evidence from other studies to suggest that breastfeeding may lower a child’s risk of becoming overweight and that the early introduction of solid foods may increase the risk.

They also found that infants in part-time child care (about half of the group) gained 175 grams (approximately 0.4 pounds) more weight during nine months than infants who were cared for by their parents. Infants cared for by relatives gained 162 grams (roughly 0.35 pounds) more weight, had a higher rate of early introduction to solid foods and were less likely to ever be breastfed.

“Overwhelming and consistent data support the notion that early weight gain during infancy is a strong risk factor for (becoming) overweight in childhood and adulthood,” Kim and Peterson noted.