The Whitehouse Taskforce on Childhood Obesity releases its report, “Solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation”

The new Whitehouse report on childhood obesity places breastfeeding in a prominent position in the prevention of childhood obesity. Infant formula is implicated as a contributor to the problem.

The Let's Move! Campaign was launched by First Lady Michelle Obama in February 2010 with the goal of solving the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. Within this campaign, President Barack Obama established the Task Force on Childhood Obesity to develop and implement an interagency plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks, and outlines an action plan to end the problem of childhood obesity within a generation. The action plan defines the goal of ending childhood obesity in a generation as returning to a childhood obesity rate of just 5 percent by 2030, which was the rate before childhood obesity first began to rise in the late 1970s. The report presents a series of 70 specific recommendations, 4 of which involve breastfeeding as an obesity preventive measure.
 
Recommendation 1.3: Hospitals and health care providers should use maternity care practices that empower new mothers to breastfeed, such as the Baby-Friendly hospital standards.

Recommendation 1.4: Health care providers and insurance companies should provide information to pregnant women and new mothers on breastfeeding, including the availability of educational classes, and connect pregnant women and new mothers to breastfeeding support programs to help them make an informed infant feeding decision.

Recommendation 1.5: Local health departments and community-based organizations, working with health care providers, insurance companies, and others should develop peer support programs that empower pregnant women and mothers to get the help and support they need from other mothers who have breastfed.

Recommendation 1.6: Early childhood settings should support breastfeeding.

The website for the Let’s Move campaign contains the downloadable report to the president from the Whitehouse Task Force on Childhood Obesity, Solving the problem of childhood obesity within a generation as well as recommendations for families to reduce childhood obesity by providing information on simple ways to make healthy choices for the family. Breastfeeding plays a prominent part in the healthy start section on feeding infants. Infant formula is implicated as a contributor of the childhood obesity epidemic. An 8 page document entitled Does breastfeeding reduce the risk of pediatric overweight provides a compelling case for breastfeeding as one of the first interventions in reducing obesity in children. It includes recommendations from the CDC’s Guide to breastfeeding interventions.

Both documents will be extremely useful in validating the importance of breastfeeding in the national campaign to reduce childhood obesity.
http://www.letsmove.gov/taskforce_childhoodobesityrpt.html