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Re: -start breastfeeding-Reuters ReportFrom: Michelle (anonymous@obgyn.net)Wed, 2 Oct 2002 13:49:51 -0500 (CDT)
Health - Reuters Breast-Feeding May Not Ward Off Allergies, Asthma Fri Sep 20,10:23 AM ET By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new long-term study is challenging the notion that breast-feeding helps protect children from developing allergies and asthma, one of the widely promoted potential benefits of breast-feeding. In fact, researchers found that of the more than 1,000 children they followed to age 26, those who were breast-fed for at least 4 weeks were more likely to develop asthma or various types of allergies. The findings are published in the September 21st issue of The Lancet. Health experts including the World Health Organization ( news - web sites) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that women breast-feed their babies' during their first year for a variety of reasons. Breast milk is recognized as the best source of infant nutrition, and it is thought to cut the risk of various infant infections and have numerous other health benefits for mother and baby. "There's 101 reasons to breast-feed," Dr. Malcolm R. Sears, the new study's lead author, told Reuters Health. However, he said, the new findings indicate that lower long-term risks of allergy and asthma are not among them. Dr. Nancy Krebs, chair of the AAP's nutrition committee, said the findings "don't take away from the recommendation to breast-feed for one year," with introduction of baby food around 6 months of age. She told Reuters Health that "we don't need to try to attribute every (health) effect to breast-feeding" for it to be the preferred form of infant nutrition. Sears, a researcher at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and his colleagues based their findings on data from 1,037 children born in New Zealand between 1972 and 1973. The children, about half of whom were reportedly breast-fed for at least 4 weeks, were assessed for allergies and asthma every few years between the ages of 9 and 26. The researchers found that breast-fed children were actually more likely to suffer from allergies to cat dander, pollen and other common triggers at the age of 13 or 21, when skin tests were performed. Asthma was also more common among breast-fed children, with a two- to three-times higher risk found among 9- to 13-year-olds who had been breast-fed.
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