Childhood obesity is a dangerous epidemic, as more than one-third of American children are now overweight or obese. Many of these kids will develop life-threatening conditions such as type-2 diabetes because of their unhealthy weight — some even before they graduate high school.

Everyone from First Lady Michelle Obama and former President Bill Clinton to professional athletes and P.T.A. moms are looking at ways to reverse this disturbing trend, with advocates pushing to make school lunches healthier and provide more time for physical activity.

Helping more moms breastfeed for the first year of their children’s lives can be another effective tool in the effort to create a healthier future for our kids.

“Breastfeeding is the first thing from birth that a mother can do to help protect her infant from becoming an overweight child,” says Cria Perrine, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. “For each month of breastfeeding, the odds of becoming overweight goes down by 4 percent, such that breastfeeding for nine months reduces a baby’s odds of becoming overweight by more than 30 percent.”

There are several hypotheses for why breastfeeding is so effective at preventing childhood obesity, Perrine says. One is that when a baby breastfeeds, he or she controls the amount of milk consumed, and thus may become better at responding to hunger cues. Breast milk also has unique properties not found in formula and hormones that are known to help regulate appetite and energy balance.

Of course, reducing a child’s obesity risk isn’t the only benefit of breastfeeding. Children who don’t breastfeed or quit early are more likely to develop ear or respiratory infections, diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Despite the health benefits, not enough kids are breastfeeding, which is no doubt contributing to our nation’s rising obesity rates. Half of babies are now given formula within their first week of life, and only 31 percent of babies are breastfeeding at nine months, according to the CDC.

Thus far, most of the effort to reduce childhood obesity has focused on schools, including pushes to improve school meals and make time for more physical activity. There’s also been an effort to reduce the number of advertisements kids see for unhealthy food and increase food options in areas that lack access to healthy goods, known as “food deserts.”

All of these efforts are worthwhile and effective, and we should continue to support them. But the folks at the CDC also are focusing much of their obesity work on hospitals, where 99 percent of infants are born.

Unfortunately, however, most hospitals do not effectively support breastfeeding.

In response, the CDC has launched an initiative designed to help hospitals encourage breastfeeding, Perrine says. The program includes 10 steps hospitals can take to help new moms breastfeed, including informing pregnant women about the benefits of breastfeeding and helping mothers breastfeed within an hour after giving birth.

This is especially important for women who are younger, less educated and from a lower income bracket, who are less likely to breastfeed. Studies have shown there are racial and ethnic differences in breastfeeding rates as well, something Perrine thinks could be addressed with improved hospital care.

“The hospital experience is critical to helping mothers and babies learn to breastfeed, and affects how long they continue breastfeeding when they go home,” Perrine says. “All women deserve prenatal education about the risks associated with formula feeding, a hospital environment that does not promote formula, and hospital support to help them achieve their breastfeeding goals.”

And if we work to provide hospital support for breastfeeding moms, we will also take a big step toward preventing obesity in their children.