Introduction:

Childhood obesity globally is an unresolved health problem, becoming increasingly present in all countries with not appropriate standard treatment strategies.

Objective:

To describe the relationship between breastfeeding, complementary feeding and formula milk in childhood obesity.

Method:

An observational cross-sectional study was conducted in 126 children, aged of 6 months to 2 years, treated at the Hospital General Docente Ambato, Ecuador, in 2019. The variables studied were as follow: age, sex, nutritional status, exclusive breastfeeding duration, time of initiation in complementary feeding and duration providing formula milk. Descriptive statistics and the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test were applied.

Results:

Infants between the age of 6 to 12 months (50.8%) and female sex (55.2%) predominated. Of the total of children, 62.1% apply in obese profile, 70.6 % were exclusively breastfed in their early 6 months (2 months less than obese patients). The same behavior was observed in those who received complementary feeding and in those who consumed formula milk for 2.5 months.

Conclusions:

Most children in the study were classified as obese. Obese children had a short frequency of exclusive breastfeeding and consumed complementary feeding and formula milk for a longer period of time rather than children with normal weight.

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