Forgive me if this has already been posted.  I've been offline a few days to
a computer crash:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=10&
u=/nm/20021129/hl_nm/breastfeeding_immune_dc

Breast-Feeding May Boost Baby's Own Immune System
Fri Nov 29,11:59 AM ET

By Clementine Wallace NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - During breast-feeding,
substances that protect against infection are passed from mother to child.
Now a new study suggests that breast-feeding may also boost an infant's own
immune response against infections later on in childhood.
"In the past 10 years, we have been realizing that breast-feeding brings much
more than we thought," said Dr. Lars Hanson, from the University of Goteborg
in Sweden. "Not only are some of the mother's defenses passed on to the
child, but breast-feeding actually seems to activate something in the baby's
own defense system." Hanson, Dr. Sven-Arne Silfverdal, from the Orebro
Medical Center Hospital in Sweden, and colleagues looked at children under
age 6 who had been seriously ill with Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), a
type of bacteria that can cause pneumonia, meningitis, and other potentially
life-threatening infections. The children became ill in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, before a Hib vaccine became available in Sweden. The researchers
found that youngsters 18 months or older who had been breast-fed exclusively
for more than 13 weeks (average 19 weeks) had a stronger immune response to
Hib than those breast-fed exclusively for less than 13 weeks (average 5
weeks). There was no difference in immune response in children under 18
months of age, according to the report published in the Pediatric Infectious
Disease Journal. Vaccination against Hib now exists in most countries, but
the bacterium still poses a threat in poor countries with inadequate
healthcare programs and vaccination, according to the report. Moreover, this
report could be used as a model to study the protective benefits of
breast-feeding against other types of diseases and infections, Hanson said.
"Convincing studies also demonstrate significant protection against diarrhea,
respiratory tract infections, otitis media (ear infections), or urinary tract
infection, for instance," he said. In previous studies, Silfverdal's team
also suggested that this immune system enhancement could last over the years,
beyond the period of breast-feeding itself. "We don't really understand how
that might work, but the information is growing that longer periods of
breast-feeding may afford more complete protection not only against certain
diseases that may occur during breast-feeding, but also against disorders
that surface long after breast-feeding is over," said Dr. Armond Goldman,
from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, who was not
involved in the study. The point when a child no longer requires this
immunological support via breast-feeding has not yet been established,
according to Hanson, but "the more the better and the longer the better," he
said. Current recommendations suggest that exclusive breast-feeding should be
continued for the first 4 to 6 months of life and up to a year if possible,
according to Goldman, which is not always an easy recommendation to follow in
the US. "It's easy to say that people should be child-centered," he said,
"but there are obvious socioeconomic factors that have to be taken into
consideration and mothers also need an adequate environmental support to be
able to breast-feed. Many factors come into play that make breast-feeding
difficult." SOURCE: The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2002;21:816-821.







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