My first reaction was..... Huh???   Too bad it doesn't hold true for my
family!
I wonder what led them to ask this question?  It was a nice article from
Reuters and its nice to have another benefit of breastfeeding
I don't know, something smells fishy... the authors claimed they have no
financial interest to disclose

here's a paste from the full article


"We examined the relationship between bed-wetting and breastfeeding
because both have been reported to be strongly associated with
childhood development. For example, since 1978, there has been
increasing clinical and basic science evidence demonstrating that
breastfeeding may provide visual, growth, and cognitive,
neurodevelopmental advantages to children, compared with feeding with
infant formula.9–12 It has been suggested that the developmental
advantages seen in breastfed children are a result of higher n-3 and
n-6 long-chain fatty acids found in breast milk compared with infant
formula.13–15 These long-chain fatty acids are essential for the
provision of rapid growth, fat-soluble vitamins, and essential fatty
acids for the developing child.

Because breastfeeding and bed-wetting have both been associated with
neurodevelopment, the objective of this study was to examine whether
breastfeeding during infancy protects against bed-wetting during
childhood by providing neurodevelopmental advantages to the child.


	   METHODS

We used a case-control study design because of the relatively long delay
between the exposure (breastfeeding) and the outcome (bed-wetting). To
examine the hypothesis that children who exhibit bed-wetting during
childhood were less likely to be breastfed during infancy compared with
normal controls, we needed 56 case subjects and 112 age- and
gender-matched controls (total sample size of 164) to achieve a 90%
power to detect a 25% difference in the rate of breastfeeding among the
2 groups using a 2-sided significance level of .05. We recruited 1 case
subject per family from the Pediatric Continence Center at Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School. Controls (age- and gender-matched) were
selected from a large, general pediatric practice located nearby at the
time of well-child visits. All children whose parents agreed to enroll
had an initial medical screening that included a history and physical
examination for all patients. We saw children and their parents when
the children were between the ages of 5 and 13 years. Because
supplementation of infant formula with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) began
in February 2002, even the youngest subjects in our study (age 5) would
not have received formula fortified with DHA. Either parent of all
subjects responded to the study questionnaires. The study protocol was
approved by our medical school’s institutional review board."


in conclusion...
"The mechanism that aligns improved development with breastfeeding has
been related to the role that long-chain fatty acids have in brain
development. In infants who were exclusively breastfed for >3 months,
red blood cell levels of long-chain fatty acids were related to
improved visual acuity and cognitive development.31 These findings are
consistent with our hypothesis that breastfeeding during infancy
protects against childhood nocturnal enuresis by providing
neurodevelopmental advantages to the child.


	   CONCLUSIONS

Nocturnal enuresis has a multifactorial etiology, but clinical evidence
strongly suggests that many cases result from delayed neurodevelopment.
There is biological plausibility in inferring that breastfeeding
protects against bed-wetting, and our results show a strong statistical
association between the 2 variables. Despite this, causation cannot be
directly inferred. We can state that our case-control study supports
the hypothesis that breastfeeding during infancy protects against the
development of nocturnal enuresis in childhood. If a prospective cohort
study further supports this hypothesis, breastfeeding could be viewed as
the first true preventative approach toward bed-wetting."


Amy Kotler MD FAAP
NJ Chapter Breastfeeding Coordinator
AAP NJ Breastfeeding and Nutrition Committee Chair
Dover Pediatrics
Doctors Park
369 W Blackwell St 
Dover NJ 07801
973 328 8300
973 328 8315 fx

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