Childhood obesity has become a global public health problem, and its incidence and development are closely related to the exposure to risk factors in early life. In recent years, more and more epidemiological research evidences have shown that breastfeeding has the modification effect on early life risk factors of childhood obesity, such as high genetic risk of obesity, maternal gestational diabetes mellitus, macrosomia and other factors. This paper reviews the research results in this field, and summarizes the modification effect of breastfeeding on childhood obesity heredity and early life environmental risk factors associated with childhood obesity, to provide a reference for the evaluation of positive effect of breastfeeding on prevention and control of obesity in specific risk groups for taking targeted measure to reduce the risk for childhood obesity.

Background Maternal atmospheric pollution during pregnancy may alter fetal intrauterine development programming, thereby increasing the risk of childhood obesity in the future. Objective To investigate the effects of atmospheric pollution exposure during pregnancy on the incidence of childhood obesity in offspring. Methods English databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Medline) and Chinese databases (Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and VIP Information Chinese Journal Service Platform) were searched for literature reporting exposure to atmospheric pollution during pregnancy and childhood obesity published from 1 January 2000 to 31 August 2023. The quality of the included literature was evaluated using the quality assessment tools for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies recommended by the US National Institutes of Health. Results Twenty-four studies meeting the inclusion criteria were identified and the associated atmospheric pollutants included particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen oxide, carbon oxide, and sulfur oxide. In comparison to the non-exposed group, prenatal exposure to various common atmospheric pollutants were significantly associated with an elevated risk of childhood obesity in offspring. Conclusion Maternal exposure to atmospheric pollution during pregnancy is associated with an elevated risk of childhood obesity in subsequent years. Future studies should pay more attention to the effects of atmospheric pollution on the distribution of children's body fat and metabolic development, and further identify potential mechanisms of atmospheric pollutant exposure leading to childhood obesity.