My concern is whether the study design is appropriate for looking at things
like diabetes and asthma in relation to infant feeding. Poorly designed
studies are worse than no studies. We found this to our cost recently here
in Australia where the media was saturated with stories about how mothers
transmit asthma to their children via exclusive breastfeeding. The study
that led to that conclusion claimed that individuals who had been
exlcusively breastfed for 3 months were more likely to have asthma (and
other allergic diseases) in adulthood as compared to those who had been
mixed or formula fed. They claimed that 40% of individuals had been
exclusively breastfed for 3 months....they had been born in 1961, their
mothers had been asked when their children were 7 years old whether their
children had been 1)breastfed, 2) breast and bottle fed or 3) bottle fed for
their first 3 months of life. This was at a time where babies were in
nurseries, breastfeeding was scheduled, early into to solids was common,
babies were routinely given other liquids like juices (even vegemite in
water!). Just what conclusions can be drawn from this study I don't know but
a claim cannot be made that exclusively breastfed babies have higher risk of
allergic disease in adulthood because we can have no confidence in the
children actually having been exclusively breastfed.

So my question about the study is whether breastfeeding will be considered
the exposure or will other foods (eg formula) be considered the exposure?
What you really, really don't want is a huge study with sloppy infant
feeding definitions making claims about diseases where a single exposure to
a foreign food is potentially very important in the etiology of the illness.
Karleen Gribble
Australia


> <http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/> has been in development
> since 2000. At this point, they've completed pilot studies and
> they're finalizing protocols, so I don't know if they're planning to
> add any further hypotheses. Breastfeeding, however, is included in
> the study design. I know they're looking at things such as
> breastfeeding and formula-feeding in light of obesity, insulin
> resistance, diabetes, and so forth; a quick skim of the site shows
> that neurodevelopment, asthma, and respiratory illness will also be
> considered against the backdrop of formula-feeding and breastfeeding.
>
> A search of the National Children's Study website turns up three
> pages' worth of hits for the term "breastfeeding" and four pages for
> "breast milk." I didn't read these in depth since I'm on deadline for
> something completely different at the moment. However, I'm glad to
> hear that the National Children's Study is back on track---things
> looked very grim last year.
>
> regards,
> Julia
>
>
> Julia R. Barrett
> Science Writer & Editor in the Life Sciences
> Madison, Wisconsin
> 608-238-8409; [log in to unmask]
>
>              ***********************************************
>
> Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
> Mail all commands to [log in to unmask]
> To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
> To start it again: set lactnet mail (or
[log in to unmask])
> To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or
([log in to unmask])
> To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
>

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
Mail all commands to [log in to unmask]
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask])
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]