Hazard of delaying weaning
March 16 -
People who were breast fed as babies may face an increased risk of getting heart
disease later in life, according to controversial findings reported today.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, researchers said they had found
evidence of damage to the arteries of young adults who had been breast fed as
babies.
Doctors at the Medical Research Council Childhood Nutrition Research Centre,
London, UK, studied 331 young adults - looking for signs of early heart disease.

Their aim was to study the flexibility of the arteries - on the grounds that
stiffening of the vessels can indicate a risk of disease.
They found that people who had been breast fed for four months or longer
appeared to have more damage than those who had been breast fed for shorter
periods.
The findings will be open to challenge because lengthy breast-feeding is
quite rare in developed countries - so families which do it may have special
circumstances.
One possibility is that the findings indicate the danger of delaying the
weaning of a baby - since this would normally start at four months.
The researchers write: "At this stage, our findings should not influence
current advice on the importance of breast feeding.
"Even if prolonged breast feeding were confirmed to have disadvantages, these
would need to be carefully weighed against the advantages."
Another expert said the findings might make people cautious about
breast-feeding infants for long periods.
Writing in the journal, Professor Ian Booth, of Birmingham, UK, said more
research was needed on the topic.



--- Denny Rice, RN, IBCLC

--- Dallas, Texas, USA

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