One of my nurses just gave me a citation from the British Medical Journal,
310(6983), 836 Pisacane, A., de Luca, U., et al. (1995)  Breastfeeding and
acute appendicitis.

A short summary:
Prolonged BF after birth -for four months or more- can significantly reduce
the risk that a child will develop appendicitis. Italian reasearchers looked
at 222 children hospitalized for acute Appendicitis (AA)and an equal number
of controls.  The average age was 8.

They found a 10% lower risk among subjects BF for four to seven months and
40% lower risk for those breastfed for seven months or more.  Breastfeeding
for up to three months seemed to provide no protective effect.

Prolonged BF may lower the risk of AA by providing immune components that
lessen the severity of infection.

One more advantage to add to the growing list!!!!!!!!!!!! TO see my list of
advantages graciously posted on the internet by a Breastfeeding mother, here
is the address:
http://www.earthlink.net/~dminear/

Granted this one study of 200+ kids doesn't proven this conclusively, but as
I have said before, it is what we don't know that really is important.  What
if this study is duplicated and then we find out that it holds up other
places as well.  Isn't it significant then that we now know that BF protects
against AA?  Most medical professionals would laugh at that notion now but in
the future when "everybody knows" then nobody will laugh.  The first doctors
that stated that smoking causes cancer were critized because people didn't
believe that it was so, yet now it is common knowledge to all but tobacco
company execs.

Jon Ahrendsen MD