Another press release - this one from Reuters - with a rather strange wording
for a headline by Johns Hopkins IntelliHealth Connection.
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH?t=333&st=333&r=EMIHC000&c=205879

Ruth Scuderi
Westfield, MA
-----------------

Infrequent Breastfeeding May Not Aid Baby

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Infants who are fed only breast milk have a lower
risk of infectious illnesses than those who are never breast-fed, but infants
who are breast-fed infrequently have the same risks as formula-fed babies,
researchers report in the January issue of the American Journal of Public
Health, a journal of the American Public Health Association.

Through breast milk, mothers pass immunity-enhancing agents to their babies.
Previous studies have found that breast-fed babies are less likely to
experience respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses than bottle-fed babies.
However, few previous studies looked at the effect that breastfeeding
frequency has on infants' risk of illness, according to a research team from
the Department of Maternal and Child Health at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, Maryland.

The team studied 7,092 mothers and infants in the US to analyze the
relationship between breastfeeding frequency and infant illness during the
first 6 months of life.

Compared with infants who were not breast-fed, the researchers found that
those fed only breast milk had significantly less diarrhea, vomiting, cough,
and wheeze in the first 6 months, as defined by number of sick baby visits and
a months-of-illness scale.

Infants fed proportionately more breast milk than other foods had fewer bouts
of diarrhea and cough or wheeze than formula-fed peers. Those infants fed
equal amounts of breast milk and other foods had fewer bouts of cough and
wheeze compared with formula-fed only babies. But infants who received
proportionately more food other than breast milk, were sick just as often as
formula-only infants, the investigators report.

Economic factors did not appear to play a role since, regardless of parents'
income, the more infants were breast-fed, the less likely they were to
experience illness.

"The study findings suggest that there may be a threshold level for the
passive immunity conferred (via)... breast milk to the infant," they write.
"Intense and perhaps exclusive nursing may be required to attain significant
protection against infectious illnesses. Or, full breastfeeding may protect
babies by preventing early exposure to contaminated foods and liquids."

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health 1999;89:25-30.