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Wheezing and breastfeeding

Nonallergic breastfed children are less likely to have recurrent wheezing at age 6 than children who were not breastfed, according to results reported in the July Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Researchers tracked infant-feeding and lower-respiratory-tract infection histories for 988 children from birth to age 6. Recurrent wheezing (four or more episodes in the past year) manifested in 3.1 percent of breastfed children at age 6, compared to 9.7 percent of nonbreastfed 6-year-olds. A history of lower-respiratory-tract infections during an infant's first six months did not increase the likelihood of recurrent wheezing, nor did breastfeeding length. Infants breastfed for one month showed no greater risk for recurrent wheezing than infants breastfed for six months. Eleven percent of recurrent wheezing among 6-year-olds studied was attributed to lack of breastfeeding.