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