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IMPORTANCE: Evidence that increased duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding reduces child obesity risk is based on observational studies that are prone to confounding. OBJECTIVE: To investigate effects of an intervention to promote increased duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding on child adiposity and circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I (which regulates growth). DESIGN: Cluster-randomized controlled trial. SETTING: 31 Belarusian maternity hospitals and their affiliated polyclinics, randomized to usual practices (n=15) or a breastfeeding promotion intervention (n=16). PARTICIPANTS: 17,046 breastfeeding mother-infant pairs enrolled in 1996/7, of whom 13,879 (81.4%) were followed-up between January 2008 and December 2010 at a median age of 11.5 years. INTERVENTION: Breastfeeding promotion intervention modeled on the WHO/UNICEF Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Body mass index (BMI), fat and fat-free mass indices (FMI and FFMI), percent body fat, waist circumference, triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses, overweight and obesity, and whole-blood IGF-I. Primary analysis was based on modified intention-to-treat (without imputation), accounting for clustering within hospitals/clinics. RESULTS: The experimental intervention substantially increased breastfeeding duration and exclusivity (43% vs. 6% and 7.9% vs. 0.6% exclusively breastfed at 3 and 6 months, respectively) versus the control intervention. Cluster-adjusted mean differences in outcomes at 11.5 years between experimental vs. control groups were: 0.19 kg/m(2) (95% 4 CI: −0.09, 0.46) for BMI; 0.12 kg/m(2) (−0.03, 0.28) for FMI; 0.04 kg/m(2) (−0.11, 0.18) for FFMI; 0.47% (−0.11, 1.05) for % body fat; 0.30 cm (−1.41, 2.01) for waist circumference; −0.07 mm (−1.71, 1.57) for triceps and −0.02 mm (−0.79, 0.75) for subscapular skinfold thicknesses; and −0.02 standard deviations (−0.12, 0.08) for IGF-I. The cluster-adjusted odds ratio for overweight / obesity (BMI ≥85(th) per

BACKGROUND: Differences between mothers who do and do not succeed in breastfeeding are likely to confound associations of lactation with later maternal adiposity. OBJECTIVE: We compared adiposity and blood pressure (BP) in women randomly assigned to an intervention to promote prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding or usual care. DESIGN: We performed a cluster-randomized trial at 31 hospitals in Belarus in 1996-1997. RESULTS: Of 17,046 women enrolled at delivery, we assessed 11,867 women (69.6%) at 11.5 y postpartum. The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding ≥3 mo was 44.5% in 6321 women in the intervention group and 7.1% in 5546 women in the control group. At 11.5 y postpartum, mean (±SD) body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)) was 26.5 ± 5.5, the percentage of body fat was 33.6% ± 8.3%, and systolic BP was 124.6 ± 14.6 mm Hg. On intention-to-treat analysis (without imputation) with adjustment for clustering by hospital, mean outcomes were lower in intervention compared with control mothers for BMI (mean difference: -0.27; 95% CI: -0.91, 0.37), body fat (-0.49%; 95% CI: -1.25%, 0.27%), and systolic BP (-0.81 mm Hg; 95% CI: -3.33, 1.71 mm Hg), but effect sizes were small, CIs were wide, and results were attenuated further toward the null after adjustment for baseline characteristics. Results were similar in sensitivity analyses [ie, by using conventional observational analyses disregarding treatment assignment, instrumental variable analyses to estimate the causal effect of breastfeeding, and multiple imputation to account for missing outcome measures (n = 17,046)]. CONCLUSION: In women who initiated breastfeeding, an intervention to promote longer breastfeeding duration did not result in an important lowering of adiposity or BP. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01561612 and at Current Controlled Trials as ISRCTN37687716.