Kim Balzer wrote: > >I know that I have heard/read somewhere (that infamous "somewhere") that >breastfeeding decreases a baby's chance of dying from SIDS. Can anyone give >me references for this? It would be much appreciated. Thanks. Hey Kim, these references come from James J. McKenna and Nicole Bernshaw's chapter "Breastfeeding and parent-infant co-sleeping as adaptive strategies: Are they protective against SIDS?" to be published in Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives by Aldine de Gruyter, November 1995. Arnon, S.S. 1983 Breast-feeding and toxigenic intestinal infections: Missing links in SIDS. In Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, edited by J.T. Tildon, et al., pp. 539-556. New York: Academic Press. Bernshaw, N.B. 1991 Does breastfeeding protect against sudden infant death syndrome? Journal of Human Lactation 7(2):73-79. Fredrickson, D.D., J.R. Sorenson, A.K. Biddle, and M. Kotelchuck 1993 Relationship of sudden infant death syndrome to breast-feeding duration and intensity (abstract). American Journal of Diseases of Children 147:460. (See description below). This is how the Fredrickson study is described in the chapter: "Fredrickson, Sorenson, Biddle and Kotelchuck (1993) utilized data from the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey of 10,000 births and 6000 deaths of babies born during 1988-1989. Their final sample included 7102 controls, 499 SIDS deaths, and 584 non-SIDS deaths. Their analysis used a consistent dosage-definition of breastfeeding and controlled for major confounders (birth weight, maternal age/race/education/postnatal smoking/prenatal cocaine use/lack of private insurance, household smoking, day care, and household size). They found that "The risk of SIDS for black infants increased by 1.19 for every month of not breastfeeding, and 2.13 for every month of not exclusively breastfeeding. Among white infants, the risk increased by 1.19 and 2.0 times, respectively. These associations remained even when deaths within the first month of life were excluded. A similar protective association existed also for non-SIDS deaths" (Fredrickson et al., 1993:460)." To put it another way, for every month of exclusive breastfeeding, you find 1/2 the SIDS deaths. Thus for one month of exclusive bf compared to bottle-feeding, you get 1/2 the SIDS deaths. Compare those exclusively bf for 2 months to those bottle-fed, you get 1/4 the SIDS deaths. Compare those exclusively bf for 3 months to those bottle-fed, you get 1/8 the SIDS deaths. Basically, by the time you get to 6 months of exclusive bf (the upper age limit for most SIDS deaths anyway, most being between 4-6 months) you have essentially none of those children dying of SIDS. Kathy Dettwyler, Queen of references