Study antibiotics as a fattening agent

Antibiotics can contribute to weight gain

22/10/2014

Too many antibiotics could make little kids fat. Infants who often receive antibiotics tend to be overweight in the following years. To this realization comes a study from America.

A repeated treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics in the first two years of life is associated with an increased risk of obesity at the age of two to four years, the study authors. They had evaluated the data from 65,480 children born between 2001 and 2009 in Philadelphia.

69% of the children received antibiotics at least once as infants; on average, each child was treated 2.3 times. Obesity was between the ages of two and four in 10-15% of children.

The risk of obesity increased with increasing use of antibiotics by 11% -16%, but only with the administration of broad-spectrum antibiotics. For antibiotics with a narrow spectrum of activity, this effect could not be detected. Here is the original publication. (Pm)

Picture: Wilhelmine Wulff