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Background: Childhood obesity has become an epidemic in recent years. Increased attention has been placed on determining ways to treat and prevent the development of obesity in adolescence. The relationship between breastfeeding and childhood obesity has been investigated, and it has been proposed that breastfeeding has a protective effect. Previous research has resulted in conflicting conclusions, and a definitive answer has yet to be determined. This is largely due to confounding variables. Objective: To determine if breastfeeding during infancy, for any duration of time, provides a protective benefit against the development of childhood obesity. Methods: An evidence-based medicine-systematic review was performed using the three articles with the highest level of evidence to answer the proposed research question. The three articles included one meta-analysis, one systematic review, and one prospective cohort study that were selected via a detailed and thorough process. This included searching CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE Complete, and PubMed databases for articles that met specific search parameters. The abstracts and titles of the articles found were then analyzed to determine if they met inclusion/exclusion criteria. A full text analysis of articles meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria was then performed to determine which three articles best addressed the proposed research question. Results: The meta-analysis and prospective cohort study concluded that there is an inverse relationship between breastfeeding and BMI. The systematic review was not definitive. Most of the studies analyzed in the systematic review showed a protective benefit of breastfeeding against childhood obesity, but the remaining showed no relationship. Conclusion: There is a potential protective benefit of breastfeeding against the development against childhood obesity. Some results were not definitive thus indicating the need for further BREASTFEEDING AND CHILDHOOD OBESITY iv investigation. Future research studies should also investigate gaps in literature and control for confounding variables to create a more definitive answer. While no concrete answer yet exists, it is the clinical impression of the researchers that breastfeeding should still be recommended over formula feeding due to its numerous benefits