Researchers in Mexico and elsewhere recently set out to
study the association between breastfeeding and chronic respiratory
disorders in children. A study of more than 5,000 children in Brazil
revealed that breastfeeding may indeed help protect kids from asthma
and wheezing.
Dr. Isabelle Romieu of the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica in
Morelos Mexico and colleagues reported their findings in the October
2000 edition of the Journal of Asthma (J Asthma
2000;37:575-583.)
Ninety percent of the 5,182 children who filled out questionnaires
along with their parents, had been breastfed. The researchers found
that the children who had not been breastfed were 1.51 times more
likely to have an asthma diagnosis than those children who were
breastfed for at least six months. The researchers also found that
those children who were not breastfed were 1.29 times more likely to
have current wheezing and 1.51 times more likely to experience
wheezing after exercise than the children who had been breastfed for
six months or longer.
Although these findings would seem to indicate a fairly strong
association between breastfeeding and asthma, the researchers caution
that more studies are needed, since the protective effect of
breastfeeding was seen only among children with no family history of
asthma.
However, previous studies have also suggested the protective effects
of breastfeeding against chronic respiratory disorders. A 1998 study
of 2,834 Australian children found that the introduction of milk
other than breastmilk before four months of age was a significant risk
factor for childhood asthma.
The Australian study showed that, compared to children who were exclusively
breastfed for the first four months, children who were not
breastfeeding exclusively were 27 percent more likely to have an
asthma diagnosis by age 6 and 74 percent more likely to have sleep disturbances
because of wheezing in the last year.
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