Reduced Lactose Baby Formula May Raise Risk of Obesity Later

Infants who received the reduced lactose formula with corn syrup solid formula were at an 8% increased risk of obesity by age 3 than children who received regular cow’s milk formula, and a 7% increased risk by age 4.

Tara Williams, pediatrician and breastfeeding medicine specialist with the Florida Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics, said the findings should make pediatricians, parents and others pause and consider what infant formulas contain.

She explained that babies who receive formula have higher obesity risk than babies who are breastfed overall. But research into the effects of different types of formula is relatively new. She said there may be a few reasons for the link between reduced lactose, corn syrup solid formula and a higher risk of obesity.

“The addition of the corn syrup really starts to potentially teach that child to like sweet things,” Williams said, which in turn can lead to less healthy eating habits in childhood and adulthood.

Or, it may be that parents who tend to give their children lactose-reduced formula are less likely to be tolerant of fussy babies, and end up feeding their babies more, Williams hypothesized.

In addition, emerging research shows corn syrup may act differently from other sugars in the gut microbiome and metabolize in the liver, leading to weight gain.

Though parents make individual choices for what kind of formula to feed their infants, states play a large role in these choices. In 2018, 45% of babies in the United States were eligible for WIC, which is funded through the federal government but administered by states. State WIC programs request bids from formula manufacturers, and products chosen are then redeemed at retailers by parents.

“Now that we’re starting to see a signal that perhaps some formulas will have a potentially added risk of obesity for participants, states may say that when we’re helping mothers select among the formulas, we need to be very explicit about this additional risk,” says Christopher Anderson, PhD, associate research scientist at the Public Health Foundation Enterprises WIC in California and lead author of the study.

Williams says more research to do similar analysis in other populations is needed to draw cause and effect conclusions, while Corkins says he’d like to see more research into the amount of formula eaten and connections to types of formula.

“We know as soon as you sign up for baby registry at Target, you’re getting formula samples in the mail; you’re very aggressively marketed to, it’s a $55 billion industry,” Williams said. “And their goal is to sell their product not to promote the health of infants.

“This research certainly will cause us to pause and consider what we are feeding our infants in the United States and how we allow companies to market their products.”