Authors:
Zhang G, Lai CT, Hartmann P, Oddy WH, Kusel MM, Sly PD, Holt PG
Authors notes:
Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. 2014;25(6):544-551
Keywords:
Atopy, breast feeding, IgA, infancy, lactoferrin, lysozyme, respiratory infection, wheezing
Abstract:
The impact of breast milk feeding on susceptibility to asthma in childhood is highly controversial, due in part to failure of the majority of studies in the area to adequately account for key confounders exemplified by respiratory infection history, plus the effects of recall bias.
We observed significant but transient inverse associations between the concentration of milk proteins and susceptibility to upper respiratory infections in year 1 only, and parallel but positive transient associations with early lower respiratory infections and atopy.
No associations were seen with asthma-related outcomes.
Breast milk feeding may influence the expression of inflammatory symptoms associated with respiratory infections and atopy in early life, but these effects appear to be inconsistent and transient.
The heterogeneous nature of breast-feeding effects suggests it may influence systemic immunoinflammatory function at several different levels.