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Cesarean delivery may lead to increased risk of obesity among offspring
Replies
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification
I was just going to type this very response. And then the obese mothers will pass on their bad habits. The cycle will continue.
The "study" here, or at least the reporting on it, is shady as all get out.0 -
I believe (too lazy to look up) that formula fed babies are more likely to be obese then breastfed. So do C Section women tend to feed formula more because of their C-Section?0
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I believe (too lazy to look up) that formula fed babies are more likely to be obese then breastfed. So do C Section women tend to feed formula more because of their C-Section?
My kids are formula fed and are healthy weights.
They're also C-section babies. Double whammy!
But yeah, we make sure they're active and that they understand eating too much isn't healthy, which foods are "sometimes foods," etc. Education is likely more important.
Everyone who is obese is obese because they ate more than they burned. Not because they were formula fed, or born through c-section, or are just genetically fat. It all comes down to how much we eat.
Edited to add: The formula thing is a correlational relationship, also. Formula doesn't cause children to become obese any more than a c-section does. Just because there is a correlation does not mean there is causation.4 -
Correlation does not equal causation.
Oh JAMA - how the mighty have fallen...
There is nothing wrong with publishing a correlation as long as you don't overstate its meaning. If the authors of the manuscript took that idea and ran with it without using the appropriate language of speculation then that would be innappropriate. My assumption though is that the media went ahead and did that for them.4 -
BS. My daughter was a CS baby who was breastfed for 7 mos then formula fed. She is slim and healthy, and had some difficulty gaining enough weight early on. She was larger than average at birth (8 lb 8 oz) but nothing extreme. I was overweight but fit and not morbidly obese. She was born via CS because she was just too big to pass through my pelvis--because my pelvis is small, not because she's excessively large. People have C-sections at all sizes and for a number of reasons. As other posters have stated, correlation =/= causation.0
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification
This. *If* there is actually a connection between the two, my guess would be this.1 -
This idea popped up a few years ago. There's actually some evidence for it. I'm not going to stake my reputation on it one way or the other, but I will note that my friends have been electing to have their infant's bodies and faces "colonized" with bacteria scraped from the mother when they have cesarean births for a couple of years now.3
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I think women have c-sections for many different reasons that don't all boil down to being obese. My 1st was an emergency c-section preemie. Then I had successful 2 vbacs. For my last baby, I couldn't find a doctor that would do another vbac for me & I was forced to have another c-section. It was ridiculous. I went into pre-term labor (of course), so they had to get me into an operating room to get the baby out before I delivered. All of my children were preemies & my pregnancies were high risk so even if I were comfortable with home birth (which I'm not), it wouldn't have been an option for me. I think it's pretty common for women to be forced into a c-section once they've had one, no matter what their weight or condition. At least here in my area of the US.1
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »Correlation does not equal causation.
Oh JAMA - how the mighty have fallen...
There is nothing wrong with publishing a correlation as long as you don't overstate its meaning. If the authors of the manuscript took that idea and ran with it without using the appropriate language of speculation then that would be innappropriate. My assumption though is that the media went ahead and did that for them.
And so the cycle begins...
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Science! petting kittens kills!0
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It is interesting, sometimes very valuable knowledge is discovered from what origionally seems a random correlation. I wasn't able to find the full article, for free at least, so am missing a good bit of the actual study (which is a complaints I have with scientific journalism, journalist interpretation are not always true to the science/scientists)
The biggest question I have is there any tracking of the cause for c sections in this study? One of the leading causes listed (found by googling) is gestational diabetes resulting in larger child which the mother cannot naturally birth. I could see where gestational diabetes could have a long term effect on weight of the child. Would be curious to see this broken down by reason for c- section.
Also this is an interesting theory:I believe (too lazy to look up) that formula fed babies are more likely to be obese then breastfed. So do C Section women tend to feed formula more because of their C-Section?
because I think (sorry no stats to back if up) that mothers who delivered via c section do have an increase occurrence of delayed or no milk production (compared to vaginal births), meaning they would have to depend on formula. So that could definitely be an additional factor.
Remember responders: saying c section children are more likely to be obese than their vaginally birthed counterparts is not the same as saying all C section children are obese.
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Yeah, idk, I know it's anecdata but my brother was underweight for most of his life and I've always been fairly average. I agree that it's probably more about the mother and not the birth.0
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification
They controlled for this in the study. 16 years worth of data, 22,000 kids studied. I heard a longer report on this on the radio. Even in families where some siblings were born by C-section and others vaginally (prior births or vbac), same mom and dad, the C-section babies were more likely to become obese. The researchers considered the age and BMI of the mom, and found that C-section birth was an independent risk for obesity.
I don't find this all that surprising. Babies pick up bacteria in the birth process, C-section babies are more likely to be premature, so maybe they are handled differently, C-section may make it harder to breastfeed, all sorts of possible mechanisms that aren't magic.3 -
Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification
They controlled for this in the study. 16 years worth of data, 22,000 kids studied. I heard a longer report on this on the radio. Even in families where some siblings were born by C-section and others vaginally (prior births or vbac), same mom and dad, the C-section babies were more likely to become obese. The researchers considered the age and BMI of the mom, and found that C-section birth was an independent risk for obesity.
I don't find this all that surprising. Babies pick up bacteria in the birth process, C-section babies are more likely to be premature, so maybe they are handled differently, C-section may make it harder to breastfeed, all sorts of possible mechanisms that aren't magic.
I think the bolded is more on the right track. I would attribute it more to a combination of things.
I posted upthread the other ways that a baby's gut flora can be established.
Maybe some moms who have C-sections and can't breastfeed end up formula feeding and over feeding, causing the baby to start out at a higher weight and gradually put on weight as time goes on. Combine that with unhealthy lifestyles at home or some of the other risk factors and it just puts the child on a fast track to becoming obese.
I still am not convinced, at all, that C-section babies are more prone to obesity by default.
And it still doesn't explain how we got to an obesity crisis in the first place, since C-sections haven't always been as mainstream as they are now.
And though I know anecdotes are not scientific, I was born vaginally and was breastfed and was overweight all through childhood. Not obese, but definitely overweight, until high school when I started to make some of my own food choices, became more active, etc.
Both of my children, on the other hand, were C-section babies, and though neither one of them were premature, I had trouble breastfeeding them, so they were basically formula fed (though they did get breast milk for the first 6 weeks or so, and had formula also). They are both active, and are healthy weights.
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification
They controlled for this in the study. 16 years worth of data, 22,000 kids studied. I heard a longer report on this on the radio. Even in families where some siblings were born by C-section and others vaginally (prior births or vbac), same mom and dad, the C-section babies were more likely to become obese. The researchers considered the age and BMI of the mom, and found that C-section birth was an independent risk for obesity.
I don't find this all that surprising. Babies pick up bacteria in the birth process, C-section babies are more likely to be premature, so maybe they are handled differently, C-section may make it harder to breastfeed, all sorts of possible mechanisms that aren't magic.
I think the bolded is more on the right track. I would attribute it more to a combination of things.
I posted upthread the other ways that a baby's gut flora can be established.
Maybe some moms who have C-sections and can't breastfeed end up formula feeding and over feeding, causing the baby to start out at a higher weight and gradually put on weight as time goes on. Combine that with unhealthy lifestyles at home or some of the other risk factors and it just puts the child on a fast track to becoming obese.
I still am not convinced, at all, that C-section babies are more prone to obesity by default.
And it still doesn't explain how we got to an obesity crisis in the first place, since C-sections haven't always been as mainstream as they are now.
And though I know anecdotes are not scientific, I was born vaginally and was breastfed and was overweight all through childhood. Not obese, but definitely overweight, until high school when I started to make some of my own food choices, became more active, etc.
Both of my children, on the other hand, were C-section babies, and though neither one of them were premature, I had trouble breastfeeding them, so they were basically formula fed (though they did get breast milk for the first 6 weeks or so, and had formula also). They are both active, and are healthy weights.
I was born from my moms vag (she has always been a healthy weight) and have I been overweight all my life. My twin sisters and brother were born via C-Section and were skinny kids and now healthy weight adults. I was overweight and preggo and had a c-section. My kid has always been a skinny minny (still is).
But anecdotes don't count, I know. Just wanted to weigh in that I don't believe the whole c-section fat kid thing, either.0 -
well crap...
life didn't give my son much hope though, he and mom would be dead without the procedure.3 -
Fast food and poor exercise is how children become obese, not the way they were delivered ...2
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Fast food and poor exercise is how children become obese, not the way they were delivered ...
Eating too much of anything makes kids obese. Fast food is an easy target, but it is more an possible to eat fast food without getting fat. I have four kids, and while we don't eat fast food super often, we do eat it now and then. None of my children are overweight (three of them are right around the 50th percentile for weight and my oldest is in the 10th percentile - about as far from overweight as you can get).
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Ten bucks says the study is bull. Any takers?0
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