Authors:
Oddy WH
Authors notes:
Evidence-Based Nursing. 2013;16(1):18-19
Keywords:
Breastfeeding, Asthma, protective effects, children, atopic
Abstract:
Breastfeeding is recommended for all infants irrespective of atopic heredity, although epidemiological studies provide conflicting results in this debate.
The protective effects of breastfeeding on asthma have been reported for young children, but other studies of children at high risk, at low risk or for adults have shown no such effects.
The assumption that breastfeeding protects against asthma has been cast into doubt from these studies.
Silvers and colleagues found that after adjustment, each additional month of exclusive breastfeeding was associated with significant reductions in current wheeze at 2 and 3 years and current asthma from 2 to 6 years.
In children who were atopic, exclusive breastfeeding for 3 months or longer was associated with reduced asthma at ages 4, 5 and 6 years.