Bottle-fed babies born to obese mothers risk developing dangerous liver disease as teens

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/eaft-bbb040816.php

Public Release: 13-Apr-2016
Bottle-fed babies born to obese mothers risk developing dangerous liver disease as teens
Maternal pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index and duration of breastfeeding found to have a direct link to the risk of an infant developing fatty liver disease in adolescence
European Association for the Study of the Liver

Data presented today demonstrates that healthy maternal Body Mass Index (BMI) and exclusively breastfeeding a child for at least six months can reduce the risk of infants developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adolescence. The results were presented at The International Liver CongressTM 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.

Pre-pregnancy BMI within the normal range was shown to reduce risk of adolescent NAFLD by a half ... and exclusively breastfeeding for at least six months reduced the risk of adolescent NAFLD by a third

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The prevalence of NAFLD in children and adolescents is rising.1 Recent studies suggest that it has become the most common liver disease in people aged two to 19 years old, with half of obese children suffering from the condition. Factors including excessive childhood weight gain are believed to be key contributors to this rise. In the long-term, NAFLD can lead to scarring (fibrosis) of the liver and a potentially life-threatening condition called cirrhosis in some individuals.

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However, breastfeeding beyond nine months did not further reduce the odds of NAFLD during adolescent

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