Public health bodies put a lot of effort into encouraging mothers to breastfeed, and for good reasons. Successive studies have shown breastfeeding has a range of health benefits, including a lower risk of wheezing illnesses, which can be linked to asthma. But which of these illnesses are most likely to respond? Is a breastfed child…
Tag: Breastfeeding
An equal start: longitudinal evidence to support children’s healthy development
Using longitudinal evidence to support children’s healthy development and give them an equal start in life is the subject of our editor Yvonne Kelly’s keynote address at the Growing up in Ireland Annual Conference in Dublin today. Her talk discusses findings from the most recent of the British ‘birth ‘ cohort studies – the Millennium…
Giving children the best possible start – what matters most?
Child of our Time Editor Yvonne Kelly spoke to a 500-strong audience of politicians and professionals in Gothenburg recently on what matters when it comes to giving children the best possible start in life. Yvonne was the keynote speaker at the conference hoping to identify the best strategies for making Gothenburg a more equal and socially sustainable city. Yvonne,…
Sugar-coating the childhood obesity problem
Child obesity figures appear to be on the rise again, causing much concern after earlier signs they had levelled off. The proportion of 10- and 11-year-olds who were obese in 2015-16 was 19.8 percent, up 0.7 percent on the year before. There was a rise of 0.2 percent among four- and five-year-olds. The announcement comes as researchers at the ESRC International Centre for…
Why poorer children are at greater risk of obesity
Obesity may be the biggest public health crisis facing the UK today. Levels have risen more than three fold since 1980. Being obese makes you vulnerable to a range of health risks. Being an overweight child makes it more likely you will become an obese adult. And you are much more likely to be an…
Breastfeeding and ethnicity
Helping more mothers breastfeed is a policy goal shared by many governments. Advocates argue that breastfeeding has a positive impact on a child’s physical, cognitive and behavioural development. Because of overlaps with other factors such as a mother’s social class or education, it is hard to measure precisely the degree to which breastfeeding alone benefits…
Breastfeeding – to a schedule or on demand?
Mums-to-be are frequently advised in baby books that feeding to a schedule is best for their child. But what does the evidence tell us when it comes to the different approaches and what might that mean for parents, practitioners and policy makers? Dr Maria Iacovou from the University of Cambridge presents recent evidence breastfeeding research at an ESRC Centre…