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Breast-Feeding in Teen Years Doesn’t Weaken Bones

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Adolescent mothers who breast-feed their baby don’t seem to endangering their bones in the long run, new research suggests. In fact, young women who breast-fed as teen mothers actually had stronger bones than their peers who did not breast-feed.

Adolescent mothers who breast-feed their baby don’t seem to endangering their bones in the long run, new research suggests. In fact, young women who breast-fed as teen mothers actually had stronger bones than their peers who did not breast-feed.As reported in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Dr. Caroline J. Chantry, of the University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, and colleagues examined the link between breast-feeding during adolescence and bone density in 819 women in their early 20s.Among this group, 245 women had been teen mothers; 94 women had breast-fed their babies and 151 had not. Also evaluated were 156 mothers who first gave birth as adults; among these, 67 had breast-fed and 89 had not breast-fed. The remaining 418 women had never given birth.Compared to women who did not breast-feed during adolescence, those who breast-fed had thicker bones — equivalent to those of women who had never given birth.These findings, they conclude, “confirm that lactation is not detrimental to the bone health of adolescents and may be protective.”(Source: Reuters, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, July 2004)


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Posted On: 18 July, 2004
Modified On: 7 December, 2013

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