 |
Birth weight and breast-feeding have independent effects on the risk
of development of Type 2 diabetes. Among Pima Indians,
infants with very low or high birth weight have two times
higher risk of developing diabetes than those with birth
weight lying in the normal range. The finding of the low
birth weight infants having increased risk of developing
diabetes is similar to that found by Professor Hales and
Barker in England. However, the excess of diabetes in the
high birth weight infants is mainly due to the effects of
diabetes on pregnancy which itself will give rise to
macrosomic infants. Breast fed infants have a lower
prevalence of diabetes in later life regardless of their
birth weight. The mechanism is uncertain, but bottle-fed
infants are heavier than breast-fed ones at five years of
age.
|
