Dear Elaine, I think of it the other way around - Weissingerizing it :-)
When my last baby was having so many problems with allergies, pneumonia etc.
I thought "oh how much worse he would be if I wasn't BF him ! "  Maybe your
friend's granddaughter wouldn't have survived infancy if she had been
artificially fed.

I also don't think anyone says BF "prevents" allergies.  I think it lessens
them.  Surely BF has an impact on other bacterial and viral illnesses.  I
see it as a balance.  If my kids allergies were flaring they seemed to get
other illnesses more easily or vice versa an illness made the allergies
flare.  Viral illness is an all too frequent trigger of asthma.  I see it
every day in my office. I wonder what this or that child would have been
like if BF for the first few years....

I've written before about my bottle fed daughter (with eczema and allergies,
developed asthma as an adult). Dad was adopted and bottlefed, has allergic
rhinitis.   She BF their 4 kids exclusively, had to stop dairy totally.  The
earliest any developed asthma was around 5, the other was about 10.  2
others no asthma so far (at 13 & 20).  I think those 5 & 10 years without
asthma were a priceless gift she gave my grandchildren.  I see little kids
everyday for whom breathing is a major chore.  Their care, neb txs and meds
are a major chore & cost for the family.  It doesn't make for happy home
life :-(
But no one takes the long term family burden into account when they say bot
is just as good as BF :-(

Just being philosophical this am :-)  Sincerely, Pat in SNJ

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