Posted on 07/13/2013 7:05:27 PM PDT by neverdem
Children predisposed to type 1 diabetes are better off waiting until 4 months of age to consume solid foods
Infants at risk of type 1 diabetes who receive their first solid foods between ages 4 months and 6 months appear less likely to develop the condition than others given solid food before or after that time window, a new study finds.
Type 1 diabetes, which can strike children at any age, occurs when an aberrant immune reaction kills cells in the pancreas, requiring a person to take insulin shots. Two studies in 2003 found an association between early first foods and the presence of rogue antibodies, a warning sign of type 1 diabetes. The new findings go an important step further, tracking babies long enough to see who developed diabetes, says Kendra Vehik, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
The new study, which appears July 8 in JAMA Pediatrics, included 1,835 children in the Denver area who had reached at least age 7. They were at high risk because they either carried a genetic trait that increased their risk for the disease or had a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes. Of the 53 children with diabetes, 28 had had their first exposure to solid food before age 4 months, roughly double the risk of kids who had started eating food at age 4 to 6 months.
Babies who had eaten their first foods later than age 6 months had a tripled risk. But very few children were started on solid foods that late, so study coauthor Jill Norris, an epidemiologist at the University of Colorado in Denver, says she’s unsure of the reliability of that risk...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
I’ve never understood why people are in such a rush to feed infants anything other than human milk, or formula for those who can’t breastfeed.
This is why we have obese six-month olds, and six-year-olds developing Adult Onset Diabetes.
My guess would be that the problem isn't that these kids are being started out on sold foods, too early, but that they are being started out on carbs, too early. Human breast milk is very high in fat, our "healthy" commercial baby foods are very low in fat and high in sugar.
Gerber Banana Baby Food
Grams fat: 0
Grams protein: 1
Grams carbs: 25
Grams sugar: 19
Gerber Squash Baby Food
Grams fat: 0
Grams protein: 1
Grams carbs: 9
Grams sugar: 5
Gerber Peas Baby Food
Grams fat: 0
Grams protein: 2
Grams carbs: 5
Grams sugar: 2
Gerber Carrots Baby Food
Grams fat: 0
Grams protein: 1
Grams carbs: 9
Grams sugar: 9
A growing body needs fat and protein for muscles and cell membranes. A growing brain needs fat and cholesterol for neural development. Where, on a diet of commercial baby food, is that fat and cholesterol supposed to come from?
Gestational diabetes is a strong predictor of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
Insulin and type 1 diabetes: immune connections
It's a review article. The autoimmunology is a work in progress, and it's quite fascinating. Abnormal glucose metabolism is the main link between two distinct diseases. Clinically, as a general rule, type 1 diabetics are almost never overweight with a body mass index usually under 25, and type 2 diabetics are usually obese with a body mass index usually over 30.
Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults, LADA, is sometimes called type 1.5 diabetes. These patients are first diagnosed after they are more than 25 years old, and they also have auto-antibodies like type 1 diabetics.
Mouse models of type 1 diabetes also have autoreactive T cells.
I’ll specify whether it’s type 1, type 1.5, type 2 or gestational diabetes after the title in the future if I have the room.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.