Hello! My name is Jill St. Germain and I am a junior nursing student at the University of North Dakota. I recently finished my clinical rotation on the OB unit. I joined this listserv about a month ago, and I have enjoyed the topics that been discussed so far.
Throughout pregnancy, new moms think about whether they want to breastfeed their baby. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are continuing to encourage the method of breastfeeding because of all the benefits it can bring to their new baby. I did some research on whether breastfeeding has an impact of the child developing asthma later on in life.
Wickman, Lilja, Nordvall, & Pershagen (2002) did a study to find whether breastfeeding had an effect on allergic diseases in infants up to age 2. They found that infants that were breastfed for 4 months or longer had reduced risk of allergic diseases, including asthma. They also found in infants who were partially breastfed, meaning they were also given formula or solid food in addition to breastmilk, that this didn’t significantly reduce their risk of developing allergic diseases.
The Tucson Children’s Respiratory Study (as cited in Wright, Hoberg, Taussig, & Martinez, 2001) found that the occurrence of asthma differed to whether there was maternal asthma. In children of non-asthmatic mothers, the percentage that developed asthma by age 13 was unrelated to how long the children were breastfed. On the other hand, they found that in children with a maternal history of asthma, there was a direct relation between duration of breastfeeding and asthma.
Another study was done to assess the relation between breastfeeding and the risk of atopy and asthma (Sears, et. al, 2002). The outcomes from this study of the people with asthma were determined from people ages 9-26 years old. Results showed at age 9, more children who were breastfed had either been previously diagnosed or presently had asthma than those children who were not breastfed. These findings were consistent up to age 21. Researchers concluded that exclusive breastfeeding had no protective effect on asthma later in childhood. The more analyzing that was done, it showed more breastfed children than non-breastfed children had developed atopy and asthma.
My questions are do you give information out to expectant mothers about the prevention of asthma from breastfeeding? Do you have any recent information that says that breastfeeding is preventive of asthma? Any information on this topic would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Jill St.Germain, SN
References
Kull, I., Wickman, M., Lilja, G., Nordvall, S.L., & Pershagen, G. (2002). Breast feeding and allergic diseases in infants-a prospective birth cohort study. Arch Dis Child, 87, 478-481.
Sears, M.R., Greene, J.M., Willan, A.R., Taylor, D.R., Flannery, E.M., Cowan, J.O., Herbison, G.P., & Poulton, R. (2002). Long-term relation between breastfeeding and development of atopy and asthma in children and young adults: a longitudinal study. The Lancet, 360, 901-907.
Wright, A.L., Holberg, C.J., Taussig, L.M., & Martinez, F.D. (2001). Factors influencing the relation of infant feeding to asthma and recurrent wheeze in childhood. Thorax, 56, 192-197.
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