NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Breastfeeding does not seem to shield high-risk Latino children against putting on too much weight and developing risk factors for type 2 diabetes, a new study shows.

Whether breastfeeding protects against obesity later in life is a "controversial topic," Dr. Jaimie N. Davis from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and colleagues point out in the medical journal Diabetes Care.

They studied 240 overweight Latino children aged 8 to 13 years with a family history of type 2 diabetes.

One hundred two of the subjects had never breastfed, 61 had breastfed for up to about 6 months, 24 had breastfed for 6 to 12 months, and 59 had breastfed for 12 months or longer.

The children were examined before puberty and for 2 more years as they advanced in pubertal maturation. Contrary to expectations, "there were no protective effects of breastfeeding on adiposity or type 2 diabetes risk factors ... across advances in maturation," Davis and colleagues report.

The team suggests one reason for the negative results: "Breastfeeding rates are lower in overweight and obese mothers, suggesting that familial dietary habits and activity patterns and genetics may supersede breastfeeding as a risk factor for childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes."

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, April 2007.

REUTERS