Aleitamento materno como fator contribuinte para minimizar o risco de obesidade infantil: revisão da literatura

Abstract

Breastfeeding should be adopted as a preventive method in child feeding, but this does not occur in practice because the decision of mothers to breastfeed and the duration of the process are variable. Given this context, the general objective of this research was to analyze the relationship between the deficiency of exclusive breastfeeding and the development of childhood obesity until the second childhood.For the development of the study, an integrative literature review was conducted with the proposal of gathering the main scientific findings on the subject and discuss them. The literature search occurred in May 2023, comprising articles published between June 2019 and June 2023 in Portuguese, English and Spanish languages through the search in electronic databases Medline (from the National Library of Medicine, USA) and Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (Lilacs). The main results indicated the deficiency of exclusive breastfeeding, i.e., the lack of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life, has been associated with a higher risk of developing childhood obesity by early childhood. Studies have shown that children who were not exclusively breastfed are more likely to develop overweight and obesity compared to those who received exclusive breastfeeding.