Association between breast feeding and asthma in 6 year old children: findings of a prospective birth cohort study

Delaying the introduction of milk other than breast milk until a child is at least four months of age may protect against asthma and atopy (a predisposition to various allergic reactions) in later childhood, say researchers from Australia in this week's BMJ. They claim that their findings provide grounds for public health interventions to optimise breast feeding which may help reduce the community burden of childhood asthma.

Dr Wendy Oddy from the Institute for Child Health Research and colleagues from Western Australia, report the findings of their study of 2,187 children in Perth, which followed their progress from antenatal clinics to the age of six years. They found that there was a significant reduction in the risk of childhood asthma by the time they reached this age, if they had been exclusively breast fed for at least four months after they were born.

Oddy et al speculate that the protective effect of breast feeding may operate in a number of ways. They also say that it is the age at which other milk was introduced into an infant's diet rather than the duration of breast feeding that seems to be more important in the association with asthma and atopy in later childhood. However, the authors conclude that they cannot definitively reject the possibility that it is breast feeding itself that is of prime importance.

They say that further studies are required to confirm the benefits that they have found and to better understand the mechanisms involved, but that public health interventions promoting an increased duration of exclusive breast feeding, may help to reduce the morbidity and prevalence of childhood asthma.

Contact:

Dr Wendy Oddy, Senior Research Officer, TVW Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, West Perth, Australia Email: [email protected]