Infant Cereal Linked To Diabetes?

cbsnews.com ^ | Oct. 2, 2003 | Emily Senay

[foolscap]

(CBS) There is new evidence that age matters when it comes to introducing cereal to the diet of a baby at risk from type 1 diabetes.

Medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay explains on The Early Show that those with type 1 diabetes have the misfortune of their immune system attacking and destroying the cells in the body that produce insulin.

The medical community does not fully understand what causes it. But, Senay explains, a baby is at risk if there's a family history or genetic susceptibility.

Two new studies in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association show a link between diabetes risk and a baby's age when cereal is introduced into the diet.

The research showed that cereal introduction before four months of age increased the risk four times of developing diabetes autoimmunity, or the antibodies that are the precursor to type 1 diabetes.

Research also showed children who were not given cereal until after six months of age were five times more likely to develop diabetes autoimmunity.

Senay does says not every baby who has a family history of type 1 diabetes will go on to develop it. And not all babies who develop the precursor antibodies will develop full-blown diabetes.

The relationship between the timing of the introduction of cereal and diabetes risk is not fully understood. Senay explains what these findings suggest is that there's a timeline to the development of a child's immune system.

The current theories are that the developing immune system of a baby can't handle cereal too early or large portions later on. Another theory is that infants not fed cereal during the critical developmental stage between four and six months miss out on key nutrients involved in the development of the immune system.

Experts are quick to point out that parents should not avoid giving their at-risk babies cereal altogether.

Senay does say parents should be sure to follow the current guidelines and try to breastfeed for at least six months, and introduce cereal between four and six months of age.

Research shows that diabetes risk was reduced in babies that were breastfed, irrespective of the age at which cereal was introduced. The medical community believes breast milk gives babies a lot more benefits as well, although it's not clear exactly why breastfeeding might reduce the diabetes risk.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Pepsi's Slurpee Success


By Motley Fool Staff
September 9, 2003
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Here's a stock for you......SPEX.....watch it climb.

[Support Free Republic]

A Recall AND a Fundraiser? I'm toast.

Let's get this over with FAST. Please contribute!

[sinkspur]

I will wager that, eventually, the culprit will be the carbohydrates.

As time goes on, Dr. Atkins' theory that high-glycemic carbohydrates are the most harmful substances we humans consume will be borne out.

[wideminded]

The research showed that cereal introduction before four months of age increased the risk four times of developing diabetes autoimmunity, or the antibodies that are the precursor to type 1 diabetes.

Research also showed children who were not given cereal until after six months of age were five times more likely to develop diabetes autoimmunity.

Either there's a mistake here or you'd better introduce cereal to your baby at exactly 5 months.

[LibWhacker]

Another theory is that infants not fed cereal during the critical developmental stage between four and six months miss out on key nutrients involved in the development of the immune system.

[Age of Reason]

Infant Cereal Linked To Diabetes

Well I wouldn't be surprised.

It would be no wonder kids get sick from eating something people may not have evolved to eat.

It was probably only after humans were forced by overpopulation to the back-breaking labor of farming that people began to eat a lot of grain.

[Cicero]

No question that breastfeeding is good for babies, and that they should be breastfed if at all possible. As to the rest of it, I'll pass. Who knows?

[Conservababe]

What do you want a young baby to eat...steak?

[Age of Reason]

What do you want a young baby to eat...steak?

Gee, I dunno.

First: How long did hunter-gatherer mothers nurse their young with human breast milk?

And then when they weaned their kids, what solid food did they give them--straight meat if old enough or maybe insects--like soft grubs--or vertebrate meat chewed by an adult? Vegetables? Roots?

I'd like to know.

But in learning this, one must take care not to consider hunter-gatherers outside their ideal habitat; for example--not Eskimos.

Mabye African Bushmen or the remoter South American tribes (though none of either has escaped some changes to their traditional ways by the encroachment of civilization).

I wonder if the two-sets of teeth humans grow has something to do with the diet of young; if so , that might be a clue as to what human young were designed to eat.

[goodnesswins]

It's probably more about the KIND of cereal....but they don't talk about that....babies need the OILS from GRAINS...I doubt that in most cereals babies are fed that they get those, ergo, maybe diabetes problems. Most processed grains (cereals) have little nutritional value except for what is unnaturally added back in...maybe that's why Asians feed their inutero and born babies....FLAX oils.

[LadyDoc]

Ah, that's why starving africans have so much diabetes. Their moms feed them cereal starting at 5 months, (just like most american moms add cereal at 5 months)...

More junk science. We're fat because we eat too much and don't work hard.

The Pima Indians have the highest rate of diabetes in the US: They are 5' and 200+pounds. Their Mexican relatives are tiny and slim and have no diabetes because they eat less animal fat and protein and work long hours at physical labour in the fields cultivating their crops.

Malnutrition is a great defense against diabetes...

[dagnabbit]

You're right. That paragraph makes no sense.

[cyborg]

I guess so... more caveman diet stuff. My mother never fed me baby cereal. She crushed bananas, plantain, peas,etc. She made her own stuff. I suppose people are too busy to made baby food anymore.

[ThePythonicCow]

Either there's a mistake here or you'd better introduce cereal to your baby at exactly 5 months.

Looks like the latter - cereal at 4 to 6 months.

Here are some other references for this same story, which state this more clearly:

• PRONEWS7 Medical Breakthroughs
• iVillage Diabetes News

The first reference above states:

The study findings appear in the journal of the American medical association. "We found that timing of the introduction of cereal in the infant diet might play a role in why people get diabetes autoimmunity or type one diabetes." diabetes autoimmunity is a precursor to diabetes. Children fed infant cereal between birth and three months of age were four times as likely to develop diabetes autoimmunity as children who were first fed cereal at the recommended four to six months of age. Not only that, but children who first ate cereal after the recommended age range were five times as likely to develop diabetes autoimmunity. "Not only is there an increased risk with a very early exposure to cereals, but there's an increased risk associated with waiting until a later age to introduce cereals." Harriet Austin’s six-year-old son Alex is at risk of developing diabetes because it runs in his family. Harriet Austin, mother: "it never occurred to me that feeding my child cereal within a particular developmental window would have any effect on his diabetes risk." but this new study says it may have an effect, so starting infant cereal between four and six months of age is the best advice.

[Dianna]

I might be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that my mother's generation was introducing cereal before 4 mos. Wasn't that when they were adding cereal to formula in the bottles to get the babies to sleep longer?

If this is true, then it should be my generation that had more juvenile diabetes.

[boris]

I am a (type II) diabetic. My understanding is (I am not a doctor) that Type I is "caused by a virus". It appears to be hereditary because the susceptability of the immune system to malfunction when confronting this virus is hereditary. Most normal people fight off the virus and that's it. Those "at risk" for Type I have an autoimmune response that attacks the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas when exposed to this virus.

Cereal? I think not...unless everything I've "learned" about diabetes is wrong.

--Boris

[ChemistCat]

My best friend handed my second-born, who was already not the best nurser, a french fry when she was 4-1/2 months old. That was pretty much it for getting anything nutritious into the kid. I could have tried gastric lavage, I guess. Since I refused to make mealtimes stressful times, I just tried to sneak healthy foods into her. We made spinach omelets, sweet potato pancakes, etc etc, for this kid.

And now this. My pediatricians told me that they need cereal around age 4 months, so that's what I did with the first two. The third one nursed till she was almost 3, with no solids until almost age 1 and then she just moved on to slow introduction of table foods--and she's the one who never seems to get ear infections, bladder infections....Mainly I had just finally figured out that there was nothing Gerber could do that I couldn't do better and cheaper with a blender or a fork.

They were all doing their best, but it just goes to show that if there's one thing you can count on with the "practice" of medicine, it's that they'll get it wrong before they get it right.

[Mears]

This is one more study to drive people nuts! Ignore it and don't feel guilty for anything you've done.

This study will be refuted some day by another study and so on and so on.

Ignore most of them and use good common sense.

[Conservababe]

Mothers know best what their child needs in way of nourishment.

When I had my first child the pediatricians were on the kick of nothing but milk for the first year. Yeah, well that is fine and good, but I bet these docs did not get up in the middle of the night to feed on demand every hour...as the baby was hungry every hour.

I nursed both my children and introduced cereals when they showed they had a need. As did my mother and her mother before her.