Research has already shown a link between breastfeeding and lower obesity risk for babies. But a new study finds another association: "Breast is best" for them even compared with giving babies breast milk out of the bottle.
The benefits of direct breastfeeding included slower weight gain and lower BMI scores at 3 months, according to a Canadian study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Still, even pumped breast milk was superior to none at all, in line with past research.
"Moms who pump go through a lot of effort to do that, and I wouldn't want them to get the impression that it's not worth it. But it does raise the question of, if pumped milk is not the same or not as good, why is that? And what should we be doing to support moms better around breastfeeding if that's what they want to do?" said study author Meghan Azad, research scientist at the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba...