Background: Research indicates that breast milk contains bioactive components that influence metabolism in infancy and may play a role in the prevention of obesity in early childhood. In our initial study, 147 breastfeeding mother/child pairs were followed from birth to 2 years of age to examine the relationship between breast milk leptin and total adiponectin (collected at 6 weeks and 4 months postpartum) and infant body composition. Higher breast milk total adiponectin was related to greater fat mass and weight gain in children at 1 and 2 years of age, whereas leptin showed no association.
Objectives/methods: In this follow-up, we examined the relationship between both adipokines and children's body weight, body mass index percentiles, sum of four skin-folds, percentage of body fat, fat mass and lean body mass at 3, 4 and 5 years of age.
Results: Breast milk adipokines were largely unrelated to child anthropometric measures.
Conclusion: Our results do not provide significant evidence that breast milk adipokines can predict adiposity in preschool children.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00362089.
Keywords: Adipokines; adiponectin; breast milk; childhood obesity.
© 2016 World Obesity Federation.