Infant Breathing - Breastfeeding and Asthma

Breastfeeding has many benefits for mothers and babies. Once breastfeeding is established, it is a method of feeding that requires no special preparation or clean-up, is a perfect source of nutrition for growing babies, and creates a unique bond between mother and child.

The heath benefits are great, as well: breastmilk is loaded with antibodies that boost a baby’s immune system. Recently, though, a study conducted by McGill University and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), has found that breastfeeding does not protect children against developing allergies or asthma.

Dr. Michael Kramer of McGill University, the scientific director of CIHR’s Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health, and his colleagues followed about 13,000 Belarussian children who had been selected at birth from maternal hospitals. The children were part of a randomized Promotion of the Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT); the follow-up took place when the children were 6 ½ years old, from December 2002 to April 2005.

Belarus was chosen for the study because hospitals had not adopted “baby friendly” policies of Western hospitals, so there was a larger difference in the control and experimental groups than there would have been in a Western setting.

The trial concluded that breastfeeding offers no protection against allergies or asthma. Dr. Kramer noted that “not only was there no protective effect, but the results even suggested an increased risk of positive allergic skin tests.”

The results of the study indicated that breastfeeding did not reduce the risk of hayfever, asthma, or eczema at age 6 ½.

Dr. Kramer found that Belarus has much lower allergy and asthma rates than places like Canada, but there is debate as to the reason. Dr. Kramer reports that “our results are similar to those found in non-randomized cohort studies in New Zealand, where allergy and asthma are even more common than they are in Canada. This suggests that there is nothing unusual about the setting that would explain our results."

While this study did not show a link between decrease in asthma and allergies, Dr. Kramer and others still recommend breastfeeding. Dr. Kramer reported that the research team “observed reductions in gastrointestinal infections and atopic eczema for the first year of life.”

Research has pointed to a connection between breastfeeding and decreased instances of obesity. Clearly, breastfeeding has many health benefits for mothers and children, and the results of this one study should not deter mothers from breastfeeding their babies.